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A survey carried out in November 2001 by Iref, a research centre linked to the Christian Association of Italian Workers (Acli), examines the aspirations of young Italians towards work. The majority of them seek an independent and flexible employment relationship, which is able to offer the same guarantees and protections as a normal open-ended employment contract. Traditional differences in attitudes towards work between young people living in the North and the South of Italy are confirmed by the survey.
Since the beginning of the 1990s, entry to the Italian labour market for young people has increasingly taken place through 'atypical' employment contracts, principally employment relationships which are fixed term and accentuate 'inward' labour flexibility for employers. These so-called flexible forms of contract which enable labour market entry are:
These new and developing forms of work introduce many precarious elements into the employment relationship because they do not protect the worker in event of individual dismissal or company restructuring, and provide lower social security and insurance cover than the 'normal' full-time, open-ended employment relationship.
These new forms of employment are used in particular to hire first-time job seekers or other young people who do not have a stable employment situation. Young people are therefore the most exposed to the consequences of precarious employment and to the absence of guarantees in terms of welfare and pensions.
A recent survey conducted by the Centre for Social Studies and Policies (Centro studi investimenti sociali, Censis) found that on 31 December 2000 some 50% of all workers with a fixed-term employment relationship were under the age of 30. Of these, more than 20% had an irregular or occasional employment relationship, while 11.8% were hired on consultancy and freelance contracts, and 11.8% were temporary agency workers.
The growth of flexible forms of work is also demonstrated by the increasing number of members enrolled in the special social insurance fund for atypical workers run by the National Institute for Social Insurance (Istituto nazionale di presidenza sociale, Inps). This special fund was expressly created in 1995 for consultancy and freelance workers, the most common type of atypical worker (IT0008160N). From 1996 to 2000, the number of insured workers grew by 95%, with around 2 million consultancy and freelance workers registered by the end of 2000. Of these, 54% were less than 39 years old.
Survey on young people and work
In this context, than 90% of first recruitments take place through atypical contracts which are then in most cases transformed into open-ended contracts. This practice influences considerably the expectations of young people both in work and still out of the labour market.
A survey conducted by the Institute of Educational and Training Research (Istituto di ricerche educative e formative, Iref), linked to the catholic Christian Association of Italian Workers (Associazioni Cristiane Lavoratori Italiani, Acli) has analysed the expectations of young people in relation to work, in order to examine the impact of flexible forms of work on this group. The survey was conducted in late November 2001 among a sample of 1,000 people living in Italy and aged between 18 and 36.
The study - which did not take into consideration the gender dimension of young people's attitudes toward work - firstly analysed young people's conception of work and classified their answers in three main categories:
- work as a 'professional environment' where individuals can shape and define their working identity;
- work as an 'instrumental tool' which guarantees economic well-being thanks to the security of having a job; and
- work as a place and means of socialisation.
The most common view of work, taken by 46% of those interviewed, was the instrumental view, seeing work as a means of providing security. Only a small minority of young people surveyed (5%) considered work as a professional environment where they can develop their identity.
Breaking down the data by geographical area indicates that young people living in the North of Italy tend more to see work as a form of 'professional identity', while those living in the South are more likely to believe that work has the primary function of supporting the individual financially. Some 51% of the young people interviewed in the South have an instrumental notion of work, compared with 48.1% of those living in the Centre of Italy, 43.9% in the North-East and 40.3% in the North-West. On the other hand, the 'professional' conception of work is taken by 11.5% of young people living in the South, 13.7% of those living in the Centre, 16.7% in the North-East and 20.2% in the North-West.
According to the study, income is seen by young people as a means which makes it possible to achieve their autonomy: 40% of those surveyed intend to save in order to be able to form a family, and 29% in order to improve their standard of living. Only 6% would invest part of their income in training activities.
Although the survey indicates that only a minority of young people seek to improve their professional position, it also highlights which groups are most interested in vocational development and training activities. These are mainly young people with a high-school diploma, who live in the South and who would like to perform an independent job. Information on training supply does not appear to reach job seekers: the most informed on training offers are those living in the South who are already employed.
The findings of the survey indicate that young people accept the new forms of flexible work: 68.6% of those interviewed said that they were in favour of flexible, independent or semi-dependent work; while 31.4% would like to have a traditional open-ended employment relationship.
Those young people interviewed who had experience of a flexible employment relationship (26% of the total) were asked to assess their experience. Among those who assessed their experience of flexible work negatively, the most common reasons were: the impossibility of making long-term plans (49.7%); the lack of social protection (29.3%); and the difficulty in building up an appropriate professional identity (18.6%). Among those who assess being a 'flexible worker' positively: 36.2% find important the possibility of organising their own time and the incitement to improve their knowledge provided by their precarious employment situation; 14% underlined the possibility of fully expressing their professionalism; and 13.5% stressed the possibility of working with more than one employer.
Finally, 60% of the people interviewed believe that not-for-profit activities will play an important role in the development of job opportunities.
According to the researchers who conducted the survey, analysis of the data indicates a clear distinction between young people living in the North and in the rest of the country on issues such as training and flexibility. In the North, young people are 'in general, more informed on job opportunities and take more advantage of training courses and activities' while in the rest of Italy the study found a deficit of information and a lack of interest in training in general. As regards flexibility, the prevailing tendency in the North 'is an idea of work linked to the traditional open-ended employment relationship, while in the southern regions the people interviewed showed themselves to be more willing to accept an idea of work characterised by flexible working conditions'.
Commentary
The Iref study is very useful in helping to understand what young people think about work, though it does not study in depth the gender dimension, which probably influences considerably people's view of work and their attitudes towards flexibility and vocational training. Other studies have highlighted the tendency of young women to remain in education, and women tend to attain higher educational levels than their male colleagues (IT0104183F). The Iref study, for its part, underlines that young people's conception of, and ambitions towards, work are strongly conditioned by the possibilities offered by the labour market.
In the North, in a situation of virtual full employment, young people are less prone to accept flexible jobs because it is easier to find regular open-ended jobs due to the high demand for labour. In the South, where youth unemployment is among the highest in Europe, young people - who are usually more educated than their Northern colleagues - see in independent employment a concrete opportunity, given the difficulty of finding a stable dependent job. Independent employment, based on a high qualification and educational level, represents, for young people living in the South, a realistic alternative to irregular work. (Domenico Paparella, Cesos)