The essential sectors that are returning to business today are those in which more stable and better-paid workers are employed. On the contrary, workers in the blocked sectors have characteristics of greater fragility in the labor market (women, young people, temporary workers, part-time workers, in small enterprises). Compared to those that remained open after the previous measures, the northern regions recorded a greater share of workers in reactivated sectors. Work in the reactivated sectors is characterized by less physical proximity between workers and a higher propensity to work from home, reducing the risk of contagion.
The sectors still blocked after May 4 are characterized by the presence of workers with less guarantees. The reopened sectors have working methods that guarantee less risk of contagion: the sectors where work is characterized by high physical proximity have been reactivated to a limited extent, or have not been reactivated at all; where the reopening has been more consistent, the possibility of carrying out work from home is higher.
This is what emerges from a research that the INPS Central Directorate for Studies and Research and the Inapp Work and Professions Structure have jointly conducted in order to highlight the individual and structural differences between all the workers who are employed in the essential sectors and those operating in sectors still blocked.
In the latter, compared to jobs blocked on 22 March, the incidence of fragile segments on the labor market has increased, such as women (which are 56% of the total workers blocked since 4 May), temporary workers (48 %), part time workers (56%), young people (44%), foreigners (20%), workers employed in small businesses (46%).
These are workers who have significantly lower average annual and weekly wage levels than workers in the sectors considered essential. The average annual wage in the latter is 127% higher than that of the blocked sectors. If we consider the average weekly wage, the differential is 43%. The strong difference between the total annual salary and the weekly salary is explained by a decidedly higher job instability in the blocked sectors, where the average number of weeks worked in the year is 19 against 31 in the essential sectors.
The economic sectors that contribute most to the differentials highlighted are 'Accommodation and Catering', with a blocked share of 82%, 'Artistic and sports activities', totally blocked, and 'Other service activities' (41% blocked) sectors showing average annual, weekly and wage weeks' wages far below national values.
As for the territorial distribution, after 4 May the share of workers in reopened sectors is higher in the regions and provinces of the north, especially in the north west. The incidence of the essential sectors is therefore higher precisely in the regions that have experienced a higher diffusion of Covid-19, a circumstance that can cause concern. On the other hand, in the big cities, where there are greater concerns about working travel by public transport, there is a lower incidence of the reactivated sectors.
As regards the risk indices linked to the methods of carrying out the work, the sectors exempted from the block of the activities have an average level of physical proximity in the performance of the tasks lower than that of the blocked sectors, while the level of the propensity to work from home , in smart working, is higher. These evidences show that the criteria used to identify the open sectors produced a greater share of employees in the reactivated sectors than the risk of contagion that the maintenance of the activities entails. The criteria underlying the choices made are marked by the maximum reduction of the risk of spreading the virus, compatibly with the need to keep certain sectors considered essential open.
Similar evidence leads to the conclusion that if on the one hand the choice of the sectors that will be blocked after May 4 involves workers who have characteristics of greater fragility in the labor market, on the other hand this choice appears supported by the fact that the blocked sectors have indexes of higher risk of contagion, justifying greater caution and waiting before the more extensive reopening.
The full study can be consulted in Studies and analysis from the Data, research and financial statements item on the Home page of the site www.inps.it and on the Home page of the site www.inapp.org.