Italy's unemployment rate rose back
up to 11.1% in January, up 0.2 of a percentage point with
respect to December, but the youth jobless rate fell to its
lowest level since 2011, ISTAT said on Thursday.
The national statistics agency said that it was the first
rise in the headline jobless rate since July.
It said that the number of people actively looking for work
increased by 64,000, after five months of falls, although the
number was down 147,000 in year-on-year terms.
The agency said 2.882 million people were unemployed in
Italy.
The unemployment rate for 15-to-24-year-olds who are actively
on the labour market dropped to 31.5% in January, a fall of 1.2
percentage points, ISTAT said.
The agency said it is the lowest level since December 2011,
when the youth jobless rate was 31.2%.
It said there was a "strong rise" in the number of under-25s
in employment in January of 61,000, taking the total figure up
to 1.074 million.
As a result the employment rate for young people rose to
18.3%, the highest since October 2012.
The employment rate for women in Italy reached a record high
of 49.3% in January, ISTAT said.
The statistics agency added that the proportion of
working-age women who are not active on the labour market
dropped to an all-time low of 43.7%.
Nevertheless, the proportion of women in Italy who are in
employment is still almost 20 percentage points lower than the
rate of 67% for men.
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