This paper contributes to the literature on changes in the employment structure from a regional perspective. The study focuses on the job quality (measured by the mean wage associated with each combination of occupation and sector) created and destroyed in the period 2014-19 in Italy's southern regions in comparison with central and northern ones and with European regions with similar characteristics.
In the period analyzed, employment growth was not strong enough in the South of Italy to return to pre-crisis levels, contrary to that observed in the Centre-North. The gap in the average quality of jobs, already wide between the two macro areas and unfavourable for the southern regions, increased further. Indeed, in the South, employment growth mainly involved the traditional sectors, while the number of public sector workers decreased. Even compared with other lagging regions in Europe, southern Italy fared worse.
