Financial aid for the geographical mobility of unemployed young people

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In January 1998, the Italian Government passed a decree law which grants ITL 800,000 per month to cover the accommodation expenses of young people willing to move from the South to the North in order to participate in employment schemes.

On 16 January 1998, the Italian Government passed a decree-law on income and employment support measures. The law offers an additional benefit of ITL 800,000 per month to cover accommodation expenses for young workers from the South of Italy who participate in work-entry programmes (Piani di Inserimento Professionale, PIP) which are run in enterprises located in other regions of the country.

According to the Ministry of Labour, about 40,000 young people might be interested in the initiative. The money will come from the National Fund for Employment (Fondo Nazionale per l'Occupazione). By participating in the PIP programme, young people in the 19-32 age bracket (up to 35 for long-term unemployed people) can work in an enterprise for up to 12 months.

Employers in the northern and eastern parts of Italy appeared to be very interested in the initiative and are also very interested in training young workers who, after a 12-month period spent working in the North, could go back to the South and work for northern enterprises which are interested in moving to the South. The decree "goes in the right direction because it will create new professional skills that will be useful not only for the North but also for the enterprises of the South", said Cesare Bernini, the director of the branch of the Confindustria employers' confederation in Treviso (north-east) (quoted in Il Sole 24 ore on 24 January 1998).

In 1997, a pilot experiment in Emilia Romagna led to the employment of 5,000 young people from the South in the enterprises of this northerm region.