In August the general rate of unemployment fell below 10%: to 9,7%, a decrease of 0,4% from the previous month and 1,6% year on year. Istat communicated this in the preliminary estimates released on Monday morning, specifying that it is the lowest figure since 2012. However, in the same month the youth unemployment rate (15-24 year olds) rose by 0,2% compared to July, reaching 31%.
But be careful: the decline in the general unemployment rate can be explained by the cyclical growth of employment (+69.000 on July and +312 on August 2017), but also with theincrease in the inactive between 15 and 64 years (+46.000), ie people who do not have a job and are not looking for one.
Il employment rate it reached 59%, a new historical record since the beginning of the series (1977). The growth only concerns employees (+95 of which 50 on permanent contracts and 45 on fixed-term contracts), while self-employment has lost 26 units.
The situation varies greatly according to age groups. The youth employment rate dropped to 17,4%. Among the elderly (50-64 years), on the other hand, the same figure rose again, to 60,8%, while the unemployment rate decreased by 0,6 points over the month and by 1,3 points over August 2017, at 5,5%. This trend is probably due to the effects of the Fornero reform, which forced thousands of workers to delay their retirement.
At the same time, however, there is also a new record for temporary work: fixed-term employees increased by 1,5% on July (+45 thousand units, to 3.143.000) and on August 2017 by as much as 12,6% (+351 thousand). Also in this case it is a new record since the beginning of the Istat historical series (1992).
As for the stable job, there was a growth of 50 units over July, but also a decline of 49 units year on year.
