The paper provides an analysis of the territorial differences in the size and composition of public employment. To this end, both administrative aggregate data (State General Accounting Department, RGS) and survey microdata (Labour Force Survey, Istat) are used.
The number of public employees in relation to the population is similar in the South and in the North, and higher in the Centre. In the South, public employees are on average older, less educated and concentrated in professions with a low skill content, which mainly reflects the contraction in hiring observed over the past 15 years. In the Centre and in the North the lower attractiveness of the public sector affects the selection of workers.
