Abstract

A surprisingly vast number of Italian workers who begin a regular working career, are dismissed after few years and remain unemployed without ever finding a new job. In this paper we explore the main characteristics of this process of forced expulsion, denominated «workforce disposal». A related issue is the large and increasing number of people who report to be out-ofthe- labor force, but willing to work, way above that of France, Germany, UK and Spain. We argue that these people, many of whom are among the «disposed», ought to be counted as long-term unemployed. If such were the case, Italy's unemployment rate would reach 15%. Finally, workers hired with permanent contracts (the insiders) are not immune from disposal: the degree of protection offered by open-end contracts is much lower than common sense (and knowledge) lead many to believe.