Max Civili
Press TV, Rome
More bad news continues to pour in for virus-stricken Italy as its national welfare agencies provide details about the impact of the pandemic on the country's economy.
On Thursday, the social security and welfare system agency, INPS, announced that Italy had more than 660,000 fewer registered labor contracts in the year between November 2019 and November 2020.
Those with less secure jobs were amongst the most hit. People on casual, fixed-term, or hourly paid contracts were let off as over 300,000 Italian companies were forced to shut down last year and many more are struggling to stay afloat due to the COVID-19 crisis.
In another report recently released, the national bureau of statistics, ISTAT, has highlighted that women accounted for nearly all of Italy’s job losses in December when about 100,000 jobs were lost with 99,000 of them due to a fall in employment among women. This as Italy's GDP fell by almost 9% in 2020 with respect to the previous year.
As Italy reports one of Europe's worst economic slump in 2020, Prime Minister Mario Draghi's new government of national unity won a confidence vote also in the Lower House, after easily winning the Senate backing on Wednesday. Draghi has said the country needed a new "Reconstruction" like the one it embarked on after World War II.
On Thursday's confidence vote in the Lower House, Draghi's government was supported by a vote of 535-56 with five abstentions. It remains to be seen how Draghi plans to revive the country’s economy and struggle with current problems.