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Social inequalities on the rise in Italy, data shows

Xinhua, May 17, 2017 Adjust font size:

Social inequalities were on the rise in Italy, both between social classes and within them, Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) warned in a report on Wednesday.

In its "Annual report on the country's situation" unveiled before the parliament, the agency provided ad up-to-date socio-economic picture of the Italian society.

"The growing complexity of the world of work... has made diversities increase, intensifying inequalities not between the social classes only, but within them as well," it stated.

The report analyzed Italy's society -- which was made of 60.65 million people in 2016 -- according to nine different social groups, divided in relation to multiple factors such as profession, income, education, and citizenship.

Two were the largest groups in 2016 in terms of numbers: firstly, families of office workers -- counting 12.2 million people overall, or 17.8 percent of all households in Italy -- which ISTAT said belonged to the well-off segment of the society.

Besides white-collar families, the most prosperous segment comprised wealthy pensioners, and members of the ruling class.

Families of retired manual workers constituted the second most numerous group: made of about 10.5 million people, or 22.7 percent of all households. It belonged to the average income segment.

Young professionals, irregular and temporary workers, defined together as the "blue collar" group, also belonged to this segment, according to ISTAT.

Finally, the lower-income group included various social subjects, such as families in small cities, households with at least one member of foreign origin, lonely elders and young unemployed people.

"This (picture) proves that belonging to a social class is not always enough to determine (income) capacity, availability, and consistent investment of people within the same social group," ISTAT stressed. "As such, social inequality is represented not only in the distance between classes, but in the same composition of classes."

ISTAT acknowledged the Italian economy was slowly returning to growth, after its longest and deep recession since World War II. Yet, it warned the country was paying the price of a long stagnation in its social fabric and economic structure.

"The slow recovery of the economy is being offset by the prolonged stagnation in productivity registered during the 2000s," it stated.

Between 2000 and 2014, Italy's total factor productivity dropped by 6.2 percent, and gross domestic product (GDP) per capita fell by 7.1 percent.

At the same time, the economic crisis affected Italy's social fabric by freezing social mobility.

"Without social mobility, fragmentation crystalized, and inequalities grew," the report said. Endit