Unemployment steady at 11.9% in January (2)

(ANSA) - Rome, March 2 - Italy's unemployment rate was steady at 11.9% in January, the same as December, ISTAT said on Thursday. The national statistics agency said 3.097 million people were jobless in January, 2,000 more than in December and 126,000 more than in January 2016 (when the unemployment rate was 11.6%).
    There was also an increase of 236,000 of the number of people in employment in January with respect to the same time last year, and a fall of 461,000 in the number of people aged between 15 and 64 who are considered 'inactive' as they are not actively on the labour market. In January 2017 22.856 million people were in employment, up 30,000 on December.
    The national statistics agency said the employment rate was 57.5% in January, up 0.1 of a percentage point over December 2016.
    The unemployment rate for people aged 15 to 24 who are actively on the labour market was 37.9%, down 1.3 percentage points from 39.2% in December.