Young people, work and future prospects constitute a sort of social 'triangle of the Bermuda shadows'. A mysterious area, shrouded in uncertainty, to which families and the younger generations look anxiously, fearful of plunging into a dangerous vortex. The reasons are well known: despite the first signs of an upturn in the national economy, the unemployment rate among young people (15-24 years old) stands at around 35%, when in the rest of Europe it averages less than half that (around 19%). Entering the labour market is more often than not punctuated by broken paths, by occasional jobs that are repeated over time - sometimes a long time - before finding a more stable landing place in terms of contractual conditions. This happens despite the fact that the latest Jobs Act reform has made the rules more flexible, also favouring permanent hiring.
Of course, this is not the case for all young people. For those with a professional certification or diploma that is more immediately spendable on the market, the road appears less tortuous. Conversely, the more a young person has invested in his or her education (degree, master's degree), the longer it takes to find (more) stable (and sometimes remunerated) employment. Particularly in the varied world of the service and tertiary sector, where young graduates come to the fore to a greater extent, the path to work is particularly bumpy and uphill. Thus, with the extension of people's life expectancy and retirement age, as well as greater resistance on the part of companies to hire, a funnel effect has been generated when entering the labour market. The combination of these phenomena helps to explain why some young people seek better job opportunities in other countries (the so-called 'brain drain') or, on the other hand, lead others to shy away from employment, education or training opportunities (the Neet) placing themselves on the margins of the labour market.
Finegil Newspapers, 3 December 2017
Courier of the Alps, 3 December 2017
The Little One, 3 December 2017
Messaggero Veneto, 3 December 2017
Complicating the picture, on the other hand, some job profiles remain unfulfilled by young people, with companies unable to find available, specialised labour, to be inserted even with advantageous economic conditions. An asymmetry between labour supply and demand takes shape, making the market and its prospects like a quagmire in which it is difficult to disentangle oneself, where families, young people and companies are each partly right. All this produces a short circuit in the collective imagination.
Community Media Research addresses the topic of young people, work and their prospects with the aim of analysing the population's attitudes on these fronts. On the whole, a horizon tinged with pessimism emerges regarding the opportunities that the younger generations will be able to have in the future, and which will become more acute over time. 80.5% of Northeasterners predict that, compared to their parents, young people will occupy a worse social and economic position, a figure that is up on 2015 (74.1%). Those who believe that it is better to move abroad in order to make a career (60.0%, it was 68.9% in 2015) decrease, but remain in the majority. Thus, the population does not yet see any signs of a reversal in the country's prospects for their children. On the contrary, the general sentiment seems to be turning more negative than improving. But is the responsibility for such a scenario attributed to the younger generation or to the market? Does it depend on the fact that young people have become 'bamboozled' and picky (choosey) or by the behaviour of companies? Only on one aspect do the respondents almost unanimously agree: companies mostly offer young people precarious and poorly paid jobs (85.6%), an opinion that is particularly widespread in Friuli Venezia Giulia (97.5%). Beyond the objective data, there is a widespread and pervasive feeling with which the production system must come to terms: that it does not invest in the younger generations. On the other side, towards young people, opinions are divided, but an almost defensive attitude towards them tends to prevail. Certainly, a conspicuous minority (40.0%) blames them because they would turn down job opportunities that do exist (especially among Trentino and Alto Adige residents: 50.0%). And about half (49.8%) accuse them, when faced with a job, of being more concerned with money than with learning a trade (especially among the Veneto: 55.5%). However, a larger majority believes that they are willing to sacrifice themselves for work, that they do not lack the desire to work (57.2%).
Summarising, we can identify three main orientations. A feeling of "understanding" prevails in the North-East (60.0%) towards young people: on the whole, the lack of prospects is attributed to market conditions rather than to their behaviour. Women, those who have recently stabilised at work (25-34 years old) and therefore have just experienced it, university graduates and the unemployed, Friulians and Giulians fall more into this group. There is no shortage, however, of 'critics' (19.5%, with peaks in Trentino Alto Adige 26.7% and Veneto 22.0%) who, on the other hand, blame young people in particular for their difficulties. It is interesting to point out that it is precisely the youngest (up to 24 years of age) who reproach their peers the most, showing how this category cannot be summed up in a single definition.
Between these two options, we find the 'bipartisans' (20.5%): in this case we include those who distribute responsibility equally both to companies and to young people. It should be emphasised that it is mainly entrepreneurs who support such a view, somewhere between self-criticism and valorisation of young people. The combination of these aspects makes the issue of youth, work and future prospects complicated, however one takes it. The collective imagination is clouded and the possible polarisation between inclusion and exclusion from the labour markets must be averted. Offering a perspective to the younger generations means outlining a future for the country by setting certain initiatives in motion: revisiting the didactics of the various training systems, because as it is set up today it is not functional for learning; building a school and career guidance system that accompanies people during labour market transitions and throughout their entire working careers; improving and nurturing the school-to-work alternation experience, which is useful for developing experiential learning; asking business and workers' associations to take on an 'educational' role, helping their members to understand the transformations of the new competitive scenario. Young people, work, future prospects: it would be useful if they could be among the central themes of discussions in the upcoming election campaigns. But the conditional is a must.
Daniele Marini
Methodological note Community Media Research, in collaboration with Intesa Sanpaolo - Cassa Risparmio Veneto, carried out the Survey, which took place nationwide from 9 to 16 October 2017 on a representative sample of the population resident in Italy, aged 18 and over. The methodological aspects and the survey were taken care of by the Questlab company. The total number of respondents was 1,561 (out of 13,413 contacts). The data analysis was reproportioned on the basis of gender, territory, age group, occupational status and educational qualification. The margin of error is +/-2.5%. The survey was carried out with a visual survey through the main social networks and with a random sample that could be reached with the CAWI and CATI systems. Full document on www.agcom.it e www.communitymediaresearch.it
