Subscribe
Italians can expect to spend just 33 years in the labour force, with low female participation and an ageing population putting increasing pressure on the country’s pension system
Italy has one of the shortest expected working lives in the European Union, highlighting structural weaknesses in a labour market already struggling with an ageing population and growing pressure on the pension system. According to an analysis by CNA, Italy’s National Confederation of Crafts and Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, the expected duration of working life in the country stood at just 33 years in 2025. This was the second-lowest figure in the EU, ahead only of Romania, and 4.5 years below the European average of 37.5 years.
The indicator does not measure the statutory retirement age or the number of years actually worked by someone who remains continuously employed. Instead, it estimates how many years a 15-year-old can expect to spend in the labour force — either employed or unemployed — under current demographic conditions and participation rates. Italy’s poor performance reflects several long-standing problems, including young people entering the labour market relatively late, fragmented careers and particularly low female participation.
Progress has also been slow. In 2024, Italy’s expected working life was 32.8 years, meaning the increase over the following year amounted to little more than two months. Across the EU, meanwhile, the average rose from 37.2 to 37.5 years. The comparison with Europe’s largest economies remains striking. Expected working life reaches 40.2 years in Germany, 37.5 in France and 36.8 in Spain. In the Netherlands, it rises to 44 years — eleven years more than in Italy.
Women bear the brunt of the gap
The most alarming figures concern Italian women. Their expected working life is only 28.4 years, compared with an EU average of 35.4 years. The gap between Italian men and women stands at 8.9 years, the widest in the Union. This is consistent with Italy’s persistently low female employment rate, which remains around 58 percent — almost 13 percentage points below the EU average. Italy also records the largest gender employment gap among member states.
Nor has the country managed to close the broader European gap over the past decade. In 2015, expected working life in Italy stood at 30.7 years. It has therefore increased by 2.3 years since then. But the EU average rose faster, from 34.9 to 37.5 years, an increase of 2.6 years. As a result, Italy’s deficit compared with the European average has actually widened, from 4.2 years in 2015 to 4.5 years today. Germany moved from 37.9 to 40.2 years over the same period, while France rose from 34.9 to 37.5 and Spain from 35 to 36.8. Italy has narrowed its distance from Spain, but made no progress relative to Germany and lost further ground to France.
An ageing country under pressure
These figures are particularly significant given Italy’s demographic situation. The country’s median age has reached 49.1 years, while people aged 65 and over account for almost a quarter of the population. Pension expenditure is equivalent to 15.5 percent of GDP, the highest share in the EU. CNA president Dario Costantini argues that Italy’s pension challenge is therefore fundamentally a question of employment, productivity and participation. In a rapidly ageing society, leaving such a large share of potential workers outside the labour market is not merely a social problem, he warned, but a structural constraint on economic growth and the future sustainability of pensions.
Simply keeping older employees at work for longer, however, is unlikely to provide a solution. CNA warns that extending working lives without creating new jobs could slow the entry of younger generations and obstruct the transfer of skills. Instead, Italy needs policies capable of increasing both youth and female employment, strengthening technical and vocational education and expanding apprenticeships. Better work-family reconciliation, continuous training and active-ageing programmes will also be essential. The challenge, in other words, is not simply to make Italians retire later. It is to enable more Italians to enter the labour market earlier, participate consistently and remain economically active throughout their working-age lives.
Alessandro Fiorentino