The Berlusconi Government’s Economic Policy during the First Year of Office
in Italian Politics
During 2002, total employment in Italy rose by 1.4 percent compared
with the previous year, while GDP increased by 0.4 percent. Figures
for the other European countries were very different, however: a
growth of 0.7 percent in GDP was accompanied by only a slight rise
in total employment of 0.3 percent. The peculiarity of the Italian
economy from this point of view could be seen, paradoxically, as a
change from a phase during which growth in GDP failed to generate
additional employment (1996–1998) to one in which the stagnation
of production did not prevent the continued growth in employment
that had previously been triggered. Moreover, the additional employment
created in 2001 was less precarious than it had been before.
That is, the newly employed included a higher percentage of full-time
workers than had been the case in previous years: 92 percent of the
newly employed in 2001 were full-time employees, compared with 96
percent in 2002.
