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Effects Of Unemployment In The 1990s

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Italy – Unemployment during the 1990s. The country of Italy has had a consistently changing and dramatic structure of employment. The GDP growth on an average from 1960 to 1995 was 3.2%. Especially from 1990-93, sluggish growth led to a serious crisis, partially dealt with between 1994 and 1995, and completely in 1997. At the time, the Italian labour market had certain special features, as compared to Western European countries like Germany and France: - a considerable difference in employment trends between Northern and Southern regions. - high levels of youth-unemployment - presence of a flexible work force through mobility between jobs and companies - large number of self-employed individuals. They formed around 29% of the labour force during the 1990s. Sector wise employment - The primary reason for the unemployment that prevailed was a result of the job loss in agriculture and manufacturing. People started to move away from these industrial sectors, …show more content…

Innovative production methods and techniques were developed. Capital intensity was increased, stocks were reduced. Service and production related activities were delegated to smaller firms, who managed their work force with greater flexibility. Employment was on the decline. The employment activity rate - The Italian labour market showed high structural unemployment and low employment activity rates. It went from 54.2% in 1989 to 47% in 1997. The number of ‘discouraged workers’ were high during the 1990s. The presence of considerable unemployment and long durations of time which an average Italian spent in seeking a job led to many individuals withdrawing themselves from the labour market. The participation rate of Italy was much lower than the USA and the collective average of the European Union. North-South dualism

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