ROME: Italy’s unemployment rate fell unexpectedly in July to 11.4 percent from 11.6 percent the month before, but some 63,000 jobs were lost, national statistics bureau ISTAT reported on Wednesday. July’s jobless rate was below the median forecast in a Reuters survey of nine analysts which had pointed to a stable rate of 11.6 percent. Unemployment has been oscillating between 11.4 percent and 11.7 percent for the last 12 months.
However, July’s data was less positive than the headline figure suggests. The jobless rate – which measures those looking for work – only fell because people unable to find jobs stopped searching altogether and left the labour market, not because employment levels rose. Jobs fell by a net 63,000, ISTAT said, or 0.3 percent from the previous month, reversing four consecutive months of employment growth. In July the politically sensitive youth unemployment rate, measuring job-seekers between 15 and 24 years old, jumped to 39.2 percent from 37.3 percent to post its highest level since August last year.
Italy’s overall employment rate, one of the lowest in the euro zone, slipped marginally in July to 57.3 percent from 57.4 percent in June. Prime Minister Matteo Renzi adopted a labour market reform last year easing firing restrictions in large firms and offering temporary fiscal incentives for employers who offer workers permanent contracts rather than temporary ones.
