Over half million jobs lost since Feb reports ISTAT

(ANSA) - ROME, JUL 2 - The Italian economy has lost over half a million jobs since February, ISTAT said Thursday.
    Due to the COVID emergency and lockdown, the stats agency said, "since February 2020 the level of employment has fallen by over half a million units and job seekers by almost 400,000, while the increase in inactive people has been almost 900,000 units." ISTAT was commenting on provisional data for May.
    It said the fall in employment in May was "more contained" than in the previous two months.
    "The number of unemployed has risen significantly," it added.
    In May, ISTAT said, the number of those in employment fell by 81,000 on a monthly basis, a drop of 0.4%, and by 613,000 on an annual basis, a drop of 2.6%.
    The monthly drop hit women by 0.7% and men by 0.1%.
    The annual fall hit women by 270,000 units and men by 343,000 units. (ANSA).