Unemployment hits historic record of 3. 4 million in Italy

28 novembre 2014

2 min di lettura

(AGI) Rome, Nov 28 - The situation in Italy's labour marketshows no sign of improvement according to national statisticsagency, ISTAT. The working population amounted to 22.3 millionin October, 55,000 workers less than in September and stable onan annual basis. The number of unemployed reached 3.4 millionin October, up by 90,000 from September - 2.7 percent - and by268,000 units from October of the previous year. Unemploymentin Italy hit a historic record of 13.2 percent in October, thehighest on record since 1977. The number of jobless rose 0.3percentage points compared to September and 1.0 percentcompared to October 2013. Those in the 15-24 age group rose toto 708,000, or 11.9 percent of this population segment, 0.1percent up from the previous month and 0.7 percent higher thanlast year, ISTAT reported. The rate of unemployment among the15-to-24-year-olds either employed or seeking a job is now 43.3percent, 0.6 percent higher than in September and 1.9 percentmore than a year ago. Prime Minister Matteo Renzi was not slowto commenting on the figures. "The rate of unemploymentconcerns us, but the data also shows that the number ofemployed is growing. Since we came into office, we have created100,000 new jobs", Mr. Renzi said. On his part, WelfareMinister Giuliano Poletti pointed out that the figures "showthat the rate of employment is in line with a see-sawingeconomy, in which signs of recovery have to counterbalance thetail of a long crisis that continues to pour negative resultsover Italy and Europe". In the meantime, the Ministry of Labourannounced some good news: "a positive trend with 400,000 newpermanent contracts, up 7.1 percent from the previous year",reported the Mandatory Communications Information System,saying it was the first indication drawn from a preliminaryanalysis of the data. Fixed-term contracts now represent 70percent of all contracts, 1.8 percent more than in the thirdquarter of 2013. (AGI) . .