Milan – When he turns fifteen, The Italian knows that on average he will have about 33 years of daily efforts (32.9 to be precise) or attempts to find work.. Facts Below the EU average, which is 36.9 years, This puts Italy just ahead of Romania.

This is evident from Eurostat tables for 2023, based on an estimate of the number of years a person, currently 15 years old, will spend in the country. She must be part of the labor force throughout her life (that is, she must be able to be both employed and unemployed).

However, an important clarification is needed regarding the Italian data. It concerns women in particular, which significantly lower our average.

Eurostat does indeed find gender differences in average working life across countries. However, as in many other areas, there are strong gradients and generally In the Scandinavian countries, the gender gap is smaller than the European average (4.3 years). In Lithuania and Estonia there is a negative gender gap (women work 1.3 and 0.8 years longer than men, respectively). In Latvia and Finland there is de facto parity (0.1 year for men). In Italy the difference is greater (8.9 years), in Romania the difference is greater. In Greece and Malta the difference fluctuates around seven years.

In Italy, despite the seven-year extension that came into effect in 2000, it is estimated that women work ‘only’ 28.3 years, the lowest number recorded by continental statistics. Under 28.5 years in Romania, then there is Greece with 30.6 years and then Croatia, Belgium, Poland, Bulgaria and Luxembourg who all remain under 34. In Sweden, the Netherlands, Estonia, Finland, Denmark, Lithuania and Portugal women work longer than 38 years.