“Significant” inequalities line our country. And, warn theIstat in the Annual Report, Covid is likely to accentuate them, widening the existing gaps, with a ‘social ladder’ in which it is easier to go down than to go up. The labor market is shrinking – 12% of businesses think they are cutting – precisely for the weaker groups, young people and women. Distance learning disadvantages children and young people from the South who live in families with a low level of education. The birth rate could drop further, yet the Italians want their children, two ideal. But Istat also highlights how the country reacted. “The hallmark” in the lockdown was “strong cohesion”. The Institute invites to look at the country’s structural problems as “levers of recovery”.
EMPLOYMENT DOWN – “The problem of finding liquidity is widespread, the repercussions on investments, reported by one out of eight companies, risk constituting a further brake and it is also worrying that 12% of companies are inclined to reduce labor input” . The investigation was conducted in May. However, “we can see positive reaction and structural transformation factors in a non-marginal component of the production system”. From the provisional data on the labor force, it also emerges that there were almost 3.5 million workers in the IGC in the week of the interview. And, again in April, almost a third of the employed (7.9 million) did not work. Workers on holidays also grew.
The “class” of origin has less influence on the social position that is reached at the age of 30 than in the past but still weighs heavily. For the last generation (1972-1986), the probability of accessing more advantageous positions instead of going up has gone down. A mobility, therefore, downwards: 26.6% of children risk a ‘downgrading’ with respect to parents. A percentage, practically more than 1 in 4, higher than in previous generations. It is also higher than the uphill one (24.9%). Which had never happened before.
WEAKENING SOCIAL LAYERS ARE AFFECTED – “The epidemic has affected the most vulnerable people most”, as “testify the social differentials found in the excess mortality caused by Covid-19”, says Istat, according to which “the increase in mortality penalized more the less educated population “. In fact, the Institute considers the level of education a good indicator of its position in the social stratum.
10 THOUSAND BORN LESS, UNDER 400 THOUSAND IN 2021 – “The rapid drop in the birth rate could accelerate further in the post-Covid period”. So ISTAT in the Annual Report. “Recent simulations, which take into account the climate of uncertainty and fear associated with the ongoing pandemic, highlight its first effect in the immediate future; a drop that should remain in the order of just under 10 thousand births, broken down by a third in 2020 and two thirds in 2021 “. E The outlook worsens if the employment shock is taken into account. Those born would drop to about 426 thousand in the final balance of the current year, and then decrease to 396 thousand, in the most unfavorable case, in that of 2021 “. (AN
FEELING FOR CHILDREN – A “low” fertility, “in constant decline since 2010”, but a “widespread” and “still high” desire for motherhood and fatherhood. A “strong discrepancy” that recorded by Istat in the 2020 Annual Report. The ideal family model contemplates two children. This is the case for 46% of people, 21.9% indicate three or more. There are “only” 500,000 people between 18 and 49 who say that having children is not part of their life plan.
–
