Changes in Italy’s employment structure and job quality

This paper contributes to the literature on changes in employment structure, focusing on the job quality created and destroyed in recent years in Italy’s southern regions in comparison with central and northern ones and with European regions with similar characteristics. In the period 2014-19, the economic divide in Italy between the central and northern regions (Centre-North) and the South widened: in the latter area, the share of workers in low quality occupations increased further, while the rest of the country also experienced growth in high quality jobs. In particular, occupational growth in the South involved mainly traditional sectors (such as hotels and restaurants), that employ low-skilled workers; in the Centre-North it was also driven by knowledge-intensive services and high-skilled manufacturing. Even compared with other lagging regions in the European Union, southern Italy fared worse, especially compared with the German and French areas.