They don’t study, they don’t work and they don’t look for work, they are neet (acronym for “not engaged in education, employment or training”). It is a very broad phenomenon, difficult to pigeonhole and classify, often treated superficially, not investigating its causes, but drawing hasty conclusions. This group includes people who postpone entering the world of work once they have finished high school, others who have not had the chance in life to acquire the security necessary to apply for a job, and still others who are resigned and they don’t look for work because they are disheartened about the future.
NEETs are widespread throughout the peninsula with peaks in southern Italy. According to data from the Openpolis foundation which can be consulted for free on the official website, “the top ten capitals for incidence of the neet phenomenon in 2019 were located in nine cases in the south, in particular in Sicilian cities”. Catania leads the ranking with 42% of 15-29 year olds in this stalemate, followed by Palermo, Naples, Messina and Caltanissetta. All with very high values, which are between 30 and 40%. Then there are eight cities where the NEET incidence is below 18%. The most virtuous is Belluno (16.1%), together with Pesaro, Rimini and Siena. No Piedmont capital is part of this group.
Being able to recover people who leave both the school and work systems is not simple, but it is fundamental from an economic, as well as personal and social point of view. Furthermore, even if data divided by municipality are not available after 2019, the percentages increased at a national level following the pandemic. And the risk is that, by underestimating the situation, the numbers do not stop.
The situation in Piedmont
Piedmont is not immune to this phenomenon. According to the latest available Istat data, the percentage of Piedmontese NEETs between 15 and 29 years old in 2022 was equal to 15% of the total number of children, a number lower than the national average (19%), but slightly higher than that of the northern regions west (14%). The area with the highest incidence of NEETs is Verbano, with 19.5%.
The most recent data divided by municipality are provided by Openpolis, concern all cities with more than five thousand inhabitants and show that even in the Granda province some municipalities exceed the national average. They are Sommariva del Bosco (21.9% in 2019), Ceva (20.4%), Dronero (20.2%) and Mondovì (19.5%). The city of Cuneo also joins the group with 21.5%, making it the second worst in the Cuneo area. Furthermore, the data for the capital of Granda has worsened more than others over time considering that in 2014 the number of NEETs was stuck at 18%. However, it also records a positive fact: it is the capital city in Piedmont, according to the most recent Istat data, with the highest participation in the school system of 4-5 year old children (94.9%).
One of the other municipalities in which the number has grown more evidently is Dronero, where the figure went from 17.2% to 20.2%. Then there are places which in 2014 exceeded the Italian average, such as Bra (19.1%), Cavallermaggiore (20.5%) and Canale (20.1%), but which in just five years have managed to improve their percentage falling below the average (Bra 18.9%; Cavallermaggiore 18.4% and Canale 18.1%). At the top of the ranking is Cherasco with 14.2%, given that it remained stable from 2014 to 2019. In second place, then, Boves (from 15% to 14.8%), followed by Peveragno (from 14, 0% to 15.8%) and Centallo (from 14.7% to 16.1%).
