(ANSA) - Rome, May 21 - Income disparities are worsening in
Italy as the richest 1% of the population own 14.3% of the
nation's net national wealth, the OECD said Thursday.
In a report on income inequality, the Paris-based agency
added that this 1% of the population have almost three times
more than the poorest 40% of the population.
It also warned that the poverty rate among families of
Italian workers in non-standard jobs - the sort of employment on
the rise in Italy - is almost five times greater than that of
workers with regular jobs.
The rate of poverty among 'non-standard' workers -
including the self-employed, temporary workers, and those with
part-time hours - was 26.6%, almost five times greater than the
rate of 5.4% for those of with stable jobs.
Poverty was higher still, at 38.6%, for the unemployed, the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
said.
It emphasized the rise in precarious employment in Italy
since the 1990s and the risks that conveys for household income.
It added that it was very difficult to
move from precarious employment to a fixed, standard job.
Among those who in 2008 had a short-term contract, five
years later only 26% of those had been able to convert that into
a permanent, full-time position.
The agency found that employment growth in Italy since
the 1990s has mostly come in 'non-typical' jobs that pay less,
are more precarious, and bring fewer benefits than conventional
posts.
Much of the job growth between 1995 and 2007 - even before
the global economic crisis - came in these less stable forms,
such as self-employment, temporary contracts, and part-time
labour.
Overall, the percentage of non-typical employment rose to
40.2% in 2013 from levels of just 23.6% in 1995.
This was particularly high for Italian workers under 30,
where 56.9% of total employment was in non-typical work, and
declined progressively with age, to 39.7% in the range 30-49
years.
The rate dropped to 33.7% for workers aged 50-64.
During the 1995-2007 period, employment grew by 26.4% but
almost all of that, 23.8%, was in the form of non-typical jobs.
After 2007 and the economic crisis, most jobs lost were
permanent, full-time posts that usually brought the best pay and
benefits.
Between 2007 and 2013, a decrease of 2.7% in the employment
rate came entirely in a decline full-time posts, while the rate
of self-employment fell by 1.5%.
During that period, part-time work rose by 4%, said the
OECD.
That reflected findings reported on Wednesday by Italy's
national statistical agency Istat that warned of rising levels
of part-time work, most of which was not voluntary.
Meanwhile poverty in Italy, "has increased markedly during
the (economic) crisis", particularly for the young, the agency
said.
The increase in the poverty rate in Italy was third-highest
among the OECD's 34 member States.
Those include some of the world's most developed economies,
including Canada, the United States, United Kingdom, Germany,
France and Japan.
Poverty rates were highest for young Italians under 18,
with 17% - four percentage points higher than the OECD average
of 13%.
The next highest level was for young people between 18 and
25, which was 0.9 points above the average.
Unemployment among young Italians, aged 15 to 25, has been
stubbornly high, climbing to 43.1% in March.
The OECD also noted that Italy has the lower percentage of
indebted households among the member states of the organization.
About 25.2% of Italian households were reported to be in
debt, a lower rate than the 35.56% level in Austria, 36.6% in
Greece, and far from the levels of the two largest economies in
the eurozone - France, with 46.8% and Germany, where levels of
indebted households stood at 47.4%.
Still, those eurozone levels were well below that of the
United States, where 75.2% of households were in debt.
Italy was also the country with the lowest level of
over-indebtedness, as only 2.3% of households were said to have
debt more than 75% the value of the family assets.
Weath gap widening in Italy
Poverty rate highest for self-employed, temporary, contract jobs