In February the unemployment rate is almost stable but employment decreases, especially among employees, and the inactive are rising again. Youth employment slightly improves. This is what emerges from the Istat calculations: in February the rate of unemployment rose slightly to 11,7% (January to 11,6% revised from 11,5%), while the rate of occupation it stands at 56,4%, down 0,2 points on January. Overall, there are 22.456.000 employed people, down by 0,4% compared to January (-97.000), but up by 0,4% on an annual basis (+96.000, +238 permanent employees), while both the unemployed fall
(-4,4%, equal to -136 thousand) and the inactive (-0,7%, -99 thousand).
“After the positive ones relating to the month of January, the data released today by Istat indicate that the labor market continues to record cyclical fluctuations linked to an economic situation which still presents uncertainties. However, these fluctuations do not modify the positive trend of employment in the medium term”. Thus the Minister of Labour, Giuliano Poletti, commented on the statistics.
“On an annual basis – notes Poletti – they register 136 fewer unemployed and 96 more employed. A figure, the latter, which is particularly affected by the substantial increase in permanent workers. The unemployment rate, at 11,7%, decreased by 0,5 percentage points, and the employment rate increased by 0,4 percentage points. Even youth unemployment, still very high, fell by 2,4 percentage points compared to the previous year. Therefore, the stabilization trend of dependent work in our country is confirmed, linked to the effects of the choices made to make permanent contracts more convenient”.
Going back to the monthly data, it's better for i young: the unemployment rate in the 15-24 age group, i.e. the incidence of unemployed young people on the total number of those employed or looking for work, falls to 39,1% from 39,3% of January.
According to Istat, “the fall in employment in February was determined by employees (-92 thousand permanent and -22 thousand temporary), while the self-employed recorded a slight recovery (+17 thousand). For the permanent employees this is the first decline since the beginning of 2015”.
The institute underlines that "after the strong growth recorded in January 2016 (+0,7%, equal to +98 thousand), presumably associated with the incentive mechanism introduced by the 2015 stability law, the decrease recorded in the last month reflects the estimate of permanent employees at December 2015 levels. For i term employees the negative trend already observed since August 2015 continues".
In the month of February the number of inactive people is increasing again marking in comparison with January +0,4% (+58.000), and down by 0,7% (-99.000) compared to twelve months earlier. The inactivity rate rose from the previous month to 36%, up 0,2 percentage points.
Looking at the December-February period, according to Istat data, “there is a drop in the number of busy people (-0,2%, equal to -48 thousand) and inactive ones (-0,1%, equal to -16 thousand), against an increase in the unemployed (+0,9%, equal to +27 thousand)".
