Over 21% of young Italians are 'idle'
Source: Agencies |
January 20, 2011, Thursday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
ONE in five young Italians, or more than 2 million people, are not studying nor working, the highest percentage of "idle" youths in the European Union, the national statistics office said yesterday.
ISTAT said that 21.2 percent of Italians aged 15 to 29 were in a statistical group known as NEET - Not in Education, Employment or Training - almost double the percentage of inactive youths in Germany.
The figure refers to 2009 and is up from 19.2 percent the year before, mirroring rising youth unemployment during the economic crisis, ISTAT said.
"Eighty percent of job cuts involve young people, they are the segment that has been hit the hardest by the recession," said Linda Laura Sabbadini, central director at ISTAT.
"It's alarming because it is a measure of social exclusion. The longer people stay without studying or working, the more difficult it becomes for them to either go back to school or find a job."
The proportion of youths who are neither working nor studying is higher in Italy's south - in some regions it is just below 30 percent.
Sabbadini said that it was rising even in the richer and more industrialized north.
Nineteen percent of young people drop out of school, and fewer than 20 percent of Italians in their 30s have a degree, ISTAT said.
Italy's economy is slowly emerging from its worst post-war recession, but growth, which has lagged European peers for well over a decade, is expected to remain sluggish.
At 25.4 percent, Italy's youth unemployment is rising and nearly six percentage points above the European average.
ISTAT said that 21.2 percent of Italians aged 15 to 29 were in a statistical group known as NEET - Not in Education, Employment or Training - almost double the percentage of inactive youths in Germany.
The figure refers to 2009 and is up from 19.2 percent the year before, mirroring rising youth unemployment during the economic crisis, ISTAT said.
"Eighty percent of job cuts involve young people, they are the segment that has been hit the hardest by the recession," said Linda Laura Sabbadini, central director at ISTAT.
"It's alarming because it is a measure of social exclusion. The longer people stay without studying or working, the more difficult it becomes for them to either go back to school or find a job."
The proportion of youths who are neither working nor studying is higher in Italy's south - in some regions it is just below 30 percent.
Sabbadini said that it was rising even in the richer and more industrialized north.
Nineteen percent of young people drop out of school, and fewer than 20 percent of Italians in their 30s have a degree, ISTAT said.
Italy's economy is slowly emerging from its worst post-war recession, but growth, which has lagged European peers for well over a decade, is expected to remain sluggish.
At 25.4 percent, Italy's youth unemployment is rising and nearly six percentage points above the European average.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
