Domestic work, over half of the sector is undeclared (56.6%). Families crushed by the cost of services (+20%)

Domestic employment grows in the three-year period 2023-2025 (+7.6%), also driven by an irregularity rate that has reached 56.6%, while families deal with tariffs that have grown by 20% in a decade. This is the photograph taken from the new chapter of the 2026 Family (Net) Work Report, by Assindatcolf (National Association of Domestic Employers). The paper, presented in Rome on Thursday 5 November, is edited by the Labor Consultants Studies Foundation.

According to what emerges from the survey, between 2023 and 2025, employment in the sector recorded an increase of 7.6%, bringing the number of work units from 1 million 381 thousand in 2023 to 1 million 486 thousand in 2025 (+7.6%), with particularly accentuated growth in the last year (+4%). At the same time, the irregularity rate also started to grow again, which had dropped significantly after the regularizations of the years 2020-2021. In 2024 this stood at 56.6%, confirming the difficulty of dismantling a phenomenon which represents a structural characteristic of the domestic market and which, due to its size, takes on a much wider relevance than the boundaries of the sector: domestic work alone in fact concentrates 33.7% of Italian irregular dependent employment. In the theoretical hypothesis of a complete emergence of the domestic undeclared economy, the rate of irregular employment in the country would drop from 13.2% to 8.6%.

The survey carried out in July 2026 as part of Family (Net) Work, on a sample of over 4,000 families who use the services of domestic workers, highlights how, in the three-year period 2024-2026, 41.6% recorded an increase in the need for domestic and care services, while a much higher share, equal to 71.7%, signals an increase in costs. The pressure is particularly intense among families who employ carers, where the increase in needs affects 67.3% of those interviewed and that in spending 86%.

The price dynamics of home care services also contribute to weighing on family budgets, increasing by 20% between 2015 and 2025, with growth concentrated above all in the last three years. It is not surprising, therefore, that 65.4% of families who use one or more carers declare that they spend over 1,500 euros per month and 28.9% more than 2,000 euros. The growing distance between needs and available resources forces families to make increasingly complex choices, especially since not all benefits can be reduced or replaced to the same extent.

In the three-year period considered, 56.6% of the families interviewed declared that one or more members increased the time dedicated to caring for people or managing the home; 24.9% have intensified their use of family and informal networks. Furthermore, in 22.1% of cases, at least one member changed their work activity to meet domestic and care needs. For many families, this creates an increasingly difficult compromise between work and care responsibilities, even when they resort to the help of domestic workers.