Labour Minister Giuliano
Poletti on Tuesday denied that unemployment has risen in Italy
despite national statistics agency ISTAT reporting earlier in
the day that joblessness was up 0.1% between November and
December, to 11.4%.
"Beyond a slight month-on-month (upward) trend, the ISTAT
data confirm a positive trend of employment in the
medium-to-long term," Poletti said.
"On an annual basis there are 254,000 unemployed less
(-8.1%), and 109,000 employed more (+0.5)," he said.
"The unemployment rate, at 11.4%, is down 0.9 percentage
points, and the rate of employment is up 0.5 percentage points,"
Poletti said.
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