Work and family? A compromise that remains very difficult in Italy. Work-life combination is not successful, especially for women. The fact that more than 44 thousand mothers will resign in our country in 2022 shows how difficult it still is to reconcile career and family. In addition, the participation rate of women in working life is still far from the European average. Figures on resignations are provided by the National Labor Inspectorate. The number of resignations approved by the INL in 2022 was 61,391, as they were submitted in the first three years of the child’s life; this is an increase of 17.1% compared to 2021. This phenomenon mainly concerns women: 72.8% of the provisions, i.e. 44,669 resignations, were approved And this is closely connected with the difficulties of reconciling life and work.
In fact, 63 percent of new mothers cite the difficulty of juggling employment and care work as one of the reasons, compared to 7.1 percent of fathers. The most important reason for men is to move to another company (78.9%), while it is a minority reason for women (24%). The majority of those who received verification (48,768 people) (79.4% of the total) are in the 29 to 44 age group. As in previous years, the most precautions concern employees who have children (or are expecting their first child) with 58%. While the percentage of parents with two children is confirmed to be more modest (over 32.5%), the proportion of male/female employees with more than two children remains limited (7.5%). The National Labor Inspectorate says this confirms that the critical period for staying on the labor market is the period immediately after maternity leave.
Who quits their job?
While 92 percent of approved resignations were related to the qualifications of officers and employees, the number of provisions regarding the qualifications of managers and directors is limited. The number of managers leaving is higher in absolute terms than that of men: 410 versus 326. Inl. “It can therefore be concluded that professional qualification is not a deterrent to leaving the labor market in the case of parenthood,” he explains. From a gender perspective, the largest share of the 44,699 verifications for women (32%) are linked to microbusinesses. This is followed by large enterprises (26.2%), small enterprises (22.3%) and finally medium-sized enterprises (15.5%). Among the 16,692 verifications for men, the most significant share (35.2%) is found in large businesses, followed by small businesses (24.9%), medium-sized businesses (20.7%) and finally micro businesses (17.3%) .
Reasons for leaving work
“The most recurring reason remains the difficulty of reconciling work and the care needs of children, both for reasons linked to the availability of care services and for organizational reasons related to one’s work context,” the National Labor Inspectorate explains. According to the specifications, this reason affects the total by 49.8% (51% in 2021). Reasons related to negotiation difficulties due to availability of services constitute 32.2% of the total reasons and are related to the absence of supportive relatives and high costs of care. newborn care, such as a nursery or babysitter, and denial of admission to nursery.
Reasons related to the difficulty of reconciling due to the organization of work or employer preferences account for over 17.6% and are particularly relevant for those that are difficult to reconcile with burdensome working conditions or childcare needs, distance from the workplace, change of workplace. , working hours. 37.5% of the total reasons are related to moving to another company.
“A profound gender difference in motivations remains,” says Inl. The main motivation for men (78.9% of the total reasons cited by fathers) is related to the transition to another company, while the motivation is related to the difficulties of job reconciliation. “While 63.6% of the total reasons cited by working mothers (65.5% in 2021) constitute reconciliation difficulties, only 24% relate to transfer situations to another company.”
The difficulty of working mothers is also seen in the data published by Confcommercio; Accordingly, the labor market participation rate of women aged 15 to 74 in Italy was equal to 48.2% in 2022: 11 points less than the European Union average of 59.6%. And the gap is even wider in the south, where women’s participation rate is 35.5%; It falls 24 points behind the European average, compared to 55.4% in the north.
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Source: Today IT
Roy Brown is a renowned economist and author at The Nation View. He has a deep understanding of the global economy and its intricacies. He writes about a wide range of economic topics, including monetary policy, fiscal policy, international trade, and labor markets.
