WORLD WORLDWIDE EUROPE ITALY - news journal UPDATE - (en) Italy, Umanita Nova #27-25 - Employment, Unemployment, Job Precariousness. The Lies of Statistics (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 Some have classified statistics as a form of lying. This is either

because inconsistent data are assembled, or because part of that data is
arbitrarily omitted to serve a pre-established thesis. Other times, it
is the inflation of data and sources that makes synthesis more
difficult. Some reflections, not new, on employment. ---- The Prime
Minister's narrative presents a flourishing economy with rising
employment and entrepreneurs complaining about not finding workers
willing to be exploited for a few euros. A true reversal of reality.

In the employment sector, the most recent data are from July and show an
employment rate of 62.8%, increasing year-on-year. In June, the
annualized balance-that is, the difference between hirings and
terminations over the last 12 months-was actually positive by 352,000
positions. However, analyzing data from the INPS Labor Market
Observatory, hires in the first half of 2025 alone, over 4.2 million,
are down 2.6% compared to the first half of 2024. This decline did not
affect seasonal and intermittent work contracts, which are, not
coincidentally, the least protected categories. The 4.2% reduction in
temporary work contracts corresponded to a 3.6% increase in intermittent
contracts, the most popular hiring method among companies. Among
fixed-term contracts, the most significant development in the first half
of the year was the surge in seasonal employment, with new hires
exceeding 680,000, exceeding new permanent contracts, which remained
stable at just over 666,000 (-6.2%). Seasonal work concerns the tourism,
hospitality, and agriculture sectors, which contain much of the
undeclared, gray, and underpaid labor, often used as a form of blackmail
against migrants. The balance between hiring and permanent positions,
compared to the first half of 2024, is down 1.8%.

Where are the major gains in job creation? And what kind of jobs are
they talking about? Furthermore, excluding the effects of the so-called
"southern tax relief" measure, a decline of 68.3% would be observed.
Female employment (those with a contract) fell by 1.6%, despite the
total tax exemption. And there's a lot to say.
In-work poverty is on the rise. Eurostat and ISTAT report that in 2024,
10.3% of working people are at risk of poverty, up from 9.9% in 2023,
and this also applies to graduates. Not only in the fashion and
logistics districts, but also in universities, researchers, research
fellows, PhD students, and temporary workers took to the streets in May
to protest wage cuts and the rise in precarious employment.

The number of workers at risk of poverty, with incomes below 60% of the
national median, is expected to increase in 2024 compared to the
previous year. Analysis of wage trends tracked by the ILO over a 17-year
period shows that Italy has suffered the greatest losses in absolute
terms of purchasing power since 2008. Among the advanced economies of
the G20, real wage losses were 8.7% in Italy, 6.3% in Japan, 4.5% in
Spain, and 2.5% in the United Kingdom. Each of our personal and family
financial statements bears witness to this.

The Italy of those who extol Made in Italy products extols a model that
in reality consists of chains of contracting and subcontracting in which
workers, predominantly migrants, earn just a few euros an hour, from
contract to contract, from one company to another, in a relay that keeps
those who do it, certainly not those who command, awake at night. The
recent case involving Loro Piana, a prestigious "Italian, eco-friendly,
sustainable" company, has exposed a situation of near-slavery: workers,
mostly immigrants, are forced to produce garments for a few euros, which
are then resold for thousands in major fashion stores. And they are
certainly not an isolated case. Underpaid workers, subjected to
production pressures, who often face violence and repression even when
demanding the enforcement of their contracts, are a widespread reality.
This is evidenced, for example, by the logistics struggles: we remember
the death of union representative Adil Belakhdim. And the serious events
in Montemurlo a few weeks ago are only the latest in a series of attacks
on striking workers by employers or private company security. The Meloni
government supports repression and threats: Law 80/2025 provides
sanctions and penalties for protesters, including passive resistance,
and Minister Salvini has publicly threatened retaliation against the
millions of workers who exercised their right to strike on Friday,
October 3, calling for an end to the Palestinian genocide and in support
of the Flotilla volunteers.

Exploitation has many faces. Failure to comply with safety regulations,
as well as pressure on production times, are among the causes of serious
accidents, even deaths. According to INAIL data, there were 607
workplace deaths (work-related deaths) in 2025: a 5.2% increase compared
to 2024, more than two per day.

Finally, there is female employment. ISTAT-CNEL statistics show
employment rates between approximately 57% and 69%, depending on whether
the woman lives with a partner or alone. In addition to accounting for a
large portion of that low-wage, intermittent, often forced part-time
work, where is the undeclared work found in care for the elderly and
disabled, in cleaning, in the restaurant industry, or in tourism? And
where are the statistics for blank resignations signed for use in the
event of pregnancy?

A brief and incomplete summary of the overall picture of the extremely
serious situation of employment and income, where every aspect is
intertwined.

Working conditions are worsening, precariousness is increasing, and
gang-mastering is present in various sectors, particularly construction
and agriculture. The war economy, with resources allocated to military
spending and diverted from healthcare and services, exacerbates the
decline in real wages, while the government's narrative continues to
equate all forms of employment, from temporary work to on-call work to
informal work. People continue to die at work, suffer intimidation, and
in some cases, actual violence when they demand the enforcement of their
contracts. The fascist government, with its harbingers of violence,
somehow sets an example for those who want to impose exploitation and
brutality. Only we can overturn this reality. And so do the millions of
people who took to the streets this week everywhere.

Nadia Nardi

https://umanitanova.org/occupazione-disoccupazione-precarieta-le-menzogne-delle-statistiche/
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