“Only 11% of children graduate if they started working at 16”

Only 11.2% of Italian children who start working at 16 graduate and Italy is black jersey in Europe with 9.9% young people aged 18-24 who leave their studies too early. This is one of the data emerging from the survey “Child labor in Italy: characteristics and impact on training and occupational paths”, carried out by the Research Department of the Labor Consultant Studies Foundation. The disaffection towards training processes and the growth of family poverty, analysts observe, risk leaving the field open to the increase in child labor in Italy in the post-pandemic and to the creation of an audience of workers without the necessary skills to climb the professional pyramid . The study shows that despite a positive trend curve in contrasting the phenomenon – thanks to the strengthening of the legislation and the greater attention to school dropout – Italy is the black jersey in the European panorama for the share of young people aged 18 to 24 who have left their studies prematurely (9.9%), together with Spain. Especially in the South, with peaks in Sicily and Campania respectively of 19.4% and 17.3%. Among the current employees in Italy aged between 16 and 64, according to the survey, about 2.4 million have carried out some kind of work activity before the sixteenth birthday. A phenomenon of irregularities that is still widespread among young people and penalizes the prospects of training and work: in 2020, there were over 230 thousand, out of 4.9 million employed under 35 years of age, to declare that they had already received a salary before According to the estimates, elaborated by the microdata of the Istat Labor Force survey, the repercussions of child labor on the life prospects of the young people involved are evident: those who start working before the age of 16 in 46.5% of cases at the most the middle school certificate; only 11.2% of the sample reaches graduation. On the other hand, among those who enter the world of work at legal age, only 18 out of 100 those who stop at lower secondary school while the percentage of graduates rises to 27.3%. Thus, in a consequential chain, child labor reduces the chances of reaching the top of the professional pyramid: only 17% get to carry out an entrepreneurial, intellectual or technical profession while there is an almost double value (31.5%) among those on the contrary, they start working later. Among these, 7 out of 10 are men – more likely to drop out of school and more involved in the livelihood needs of families in poor economic conditions than women – and live in the Northern regions (57 , 1%) where there are greater employment opportunities in the productive fabric, especially in the regions with the highest tourist vocation (Trentino Alto Adige, 17.9%; Val d’Aosta, 10.6%; Sardinia, 10.3%). “The reduction of the phenomenon of child labor among the younger sections of the population must not distract us from the risk that the transformations underway in the world of work and society, determined by the health emergency, will reverse the “says Rosario De Luca, president of the Foundation for Labor Consultants Studies. “The data confirm, once again, that investment in training and skills is winning in a perspective that looks at future opportunities, both for individuals and for the country system”, finally underlines De Luca.