Unemployment requests up 12% in March

(ANSA) - Rome, May 18 - Pensions and social security agency INPS said Thursday that it received 111,334 applications for unemployment benefit in March, a rise of 12% on the 99,435 registered in the same month in 2016. It said there were 381,495 requests in the first three months of 2017, an increase of 7% on the 356,497 for the same period last year. In the first quarter of 2014 there were 532,000 requests for unemployment benefit, while there were 494,359 in the equivalent period in 2015.