Good news from the labor market in March: unemployment, including youth unemployment, is down at its lowest since 2012, and at the same time employment continues to grow, which marks an acceleration compared to the beginning of the year. This is revealed by the latest Istat report.
The Statistical Institute communicated that after the drop in February (-0,4%, equal to -87 thousand), last month the estimate of occupied rose by 0,4% (+90 thousand people employed), back to January levels. The increase concerns both employees (+42 thousand permanent employees and +34 thousand fixed-term employees) and independent employees (+14 thousand). The growth of employment involves men and women e it is distributed among all age groups with the exception of 25-34 year olds. The employment rate, equal to 56,7%, increased by 0,2 percentage points compared to the previous month. Unemployment, on the other hand, fell to 11,4% in March, down 0,3 percentage points on February. Youth unemployment reaches 36,7%, 1,5 percentage points less on the month and 5,4 points on the year. Again, this is the lowest level since the end of 2012.
A quarterly level, 2016 has so far recorded substantial stability in the level of employed persons (+0,1%, equal to +17 thousand) compared to the previous three months, the last of 2015. The only component showing significant cyclical growth is that of permanent employees, which increased by 0,5% on the fourth quarter of 2015 (+72 thousand).
Also the unemployment improved compared to the previous three months: in the period January-March 2016 there was a decrease in the unemployed of -0,5% (equal to -15 thousand) and inactive ones of -0,3% (equal to -43 thousand).
Every year the trend towards an increase in the number of employed people is confirmed (+1,2%, equal to +263 thousand), which involves especially the over 50s. Both the unemployed (-8,6%, equal to -274 thousand) and the inactive (-0,9%, equal to -125 thousand) are decreasing.
