In February the unemployment rate in Italy has reached 13%, the highest figure since 1977, beginning of quarterly time series. The total number of jobless people has crossed the threshold for the first time 3,3 million, while the youth unemployment rate stood at 42,3%. These are the numbers of the provisional estimates published this morning by Istat.
The Institute of Statistics specifies that the general figure has remained substantially stable compared to January (12,9%), but has grown by 1,1 percentage points on an annual basis. The rate relating to 15-24 year olds instead recorded a slight decrease compared to the record recorded in January (42,4%). The total number of unemployed reached 3 million and 307 thousand, up by 0,2% compared to the previous month (+8 thousand) and by 9% on an annual basis (+272 thousand).
Also in February, the employment rate it settled at 55,2% (the lowest level since the first quarter of 2000), stable in economic terms but up by 0,8 percentage points on an annual basis. Just over one out of two Italians in the 15-64 age group is employed.
In total, the number of employees reached 22 million 216 thousand people (the lowest figure since the first quarter of 2003), a decrease of 0,2% compared to January (-39 thousand) and of 1,6% on an annual basis (-365 thousand), the which is equivalent to a loss of a thousand jobs per day.
