Bruno Contini

“Disposable workforce, long-term unemployment, out-of-the labour force or irregular work ? discovering the pathologies of the italian labour market”

abstract

Italy’s labour market suffers from a serious pathology, in addition to the increasing precariousness of the young workforce common to all EU member countries: flows from regular employment to non-employment are very often dead-ends. A vast number of individuals who lose their job enter the ranks of the unemployed, never to regain regular employment. “Workforce disposal” refers to the process generating this pathology: labor inputs are “used” by the employers for a brief period of months or years, after which the workers are “disposed” or thrown away as if they were worn-out and useless commodities. In this study we set out to investigate the determinants of worker disposal and to indicate a gross estimate of the end destination of male workers after being disposed. We use the WHIP longitudinal database originating from Social Security records, and benchmark the results with the ECHP longitudinal survey.