Italy came second-last in a ranking on youth employment released on Wednesday by the OECD.
The Paris-based organization said the employment rate for Italians aged 15-29 dropped from 64.33% in 2007 to 52.79% in 2013, putting Italy second-bottom among OECD member States, above only Greece, which had a youth-employment rate of 48,49%.
Italy is fourth-from-bottom in the employment ranking for the 30-54 age range, with a rate of 70.98% in 2013, down from 74.98% in 2007.
Furthermore, some 26% of young people in Italy aged under 30 are 'NEETs' - neither employed nor registered in educational or training courses - the fourth highest figure in the OECD, according to a report on youth unemployment out Wednesday.
At the start of the recession in 2008 the figure for Italy was 19.15%.
There were more than 39 million young 'NEETs' in the whole of the OECD at the end of 2013, more than double compared to before the economic crisis that hit Europe.
Among young Italian NEETs, some 40% left school without obtaining secondary school diplomas, 49.87% stopped education after the diploma and 10.13% have a university degree.
There are more NEETs in Italy among young women (27.99%) than among men (24.26%).
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