Istat: unemployment below 12%, 70 thousand more employed

The rate has dropped below 12% for the first time since February 2013 – The rate for young people, however, has increased to 40,7% – “More than 325 jobs in one year. Jobs Act effect”, comments Renzi.

In August, the unemployment rate in Italy dropped to 11,9%, returning below 12% for the first time since February 2013. This is the provisional estimate released this morning by Istat. The decline is 0,1% on the month and 0,7% on the year.

As for employed persons, the third consecutive month of growth was recorded: after the increase in June (+0,1%) and July (+0,3%), in August the estimate of employed persons grew again by 0,3 % (+69 thousand). The rise, explains Istat, "is determined by the increase in employed workers (+70), mainly fixed-term (+45)". The employment rate increases by 0,2 percentage points, reaching 56,5%. On an annual basis, employment grew by 1,5% (+325 people employed) and the employment rate by 0,9 points.

Among employees, an increase of 0,2% was recorded in the last month for the permanent component (+25) and, precisely, of 1,9% for the fixed-term component (+45). In the period June-August 2015, permanent employees increased by 0,1% compared to the previous three months (+13), while temporary employees increased by 4,1% (+94).

Still in August, however, the youth unemployment rate (15-24 year olds) increased to 40,7% (+0,3 percentage points compared to the previous month). The estimate of the employed 15-24 year olds increases by 0,8% compared to July (+7 thousand). Again on a monthly basis, the youth employment rate, equal to 15,5%, grew by 0,1 percentage points.

The estimate of the number of unemployed young people increases compared to the previous month (+2,1%, equal to +13 thousand). The incidence of unemployed young people aged between 15 and 24 out of the total number of young people in the same age group is 10,6% (that is, just over one young person out of 10 is unemployed). This incidence increased by 0,2 percentage points in the last month.

“More than 325 jobs in one year. Jobs Act effect”. It's Matteo Renzi's tweet, commenting on the Istat data with the hashtags #italiariparte and #lavoltabuona.