ROME (Reuters) – Italy’s unemployment rate fell slightly to 6.3% in January from an upwardly revised 6.4% the month before, national statistics bureau ISTAT reported on Tuesday, with a net 145,000 jobs created during the month.
A Reuters survey of 6 analysts had forecast a January jobless rate of 6.3%.
In January, the number of people in work was up by 513,000, or 2.2%, compared with January 2024.
In the November-to-January period, employment in the euro zone’s third largest economy was up by 85,000 or 0.4%, compared with the previous three months, ISTAT said.
Italy’s employment rate, one of the lowest in the euro zone, rose in January to 62.8% from an upwardly revised 62.4% the month before, reaching its highest level since ISTAT’s current series began in 2004.
In January the number of so-called “inactive” people, who are neither in work nor looking for work, fell by 146,000, or 1.2%, from December, and by 158,000 (-1.3%) on a yearly basis.
The youth unemployment rate, measuring job-seekers between 15 and 24 years old, fell in January to 18.7% from 19% the month before.
(Reporting by Antonella Cinelli, editing by Gavin Jones)
