Labour Market Segmentation, Flexibility and Precariousness in the Italian North East

This chapter discusses the relation between flexibility and precariousness by using a longitudinal panel constructed from the administrative records of the Italian Social Security System (Inps) and compiled at the Department of Economics, Venice University. The data set concerns the entire population of employees and workers in two provinces, Treviso and Vicenza, of the Italian region of Veneto. Quantitative evidence on the increase in ‘non-standard’ forms of employment during the late 1990s is provided together with some conclusions concerning the downward bias in the measures adopted in official Italian statistics and in international comparisons. The second part of the chapter restricts its analysis to private employees in manufacturing, distinguishing them in ‘movers’ and ‘stayers’. Both categories show signs of instability. The quota of tenured workers over total workers decreases, and movers significantly increase over time. Among these latter are permanent movers, whose fragmented and chaotic work histories are identified and compared with those of workers with more stable careers. The recent spread of new forms of temporary employment among mature workers has exacerbated the recourse to short employment spells and the cost of this new pattern of employment, in terms of both income and human capital loss, is possibly much larger than the benefits that can be expected from greater labour-market flexibility.