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Italy unemployment steady at 11.1 pct

Xinhua,December 01, 2017 Adjust font size:

ROME, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) -- Italy's unemployment rate in October was steady at 11.1 percent, compared to the previous month, data from the country's statistics institute, ISTAT, reported Thursday.

This compared to a jobless rate of 8.8 percent in the 19-country eurozone, and 7.4 percent in the 28-member European Union (EU), according to EU statistics office Eurostat.

Also for comparison, October unemployment stood at 3.6 percent in Germany and at 16.7 percent in Spain, Eurostat said.

Back in Italy, ISTAT said that according to its provisional data, there were 2.88 million people out of a job in October, while unemployment among youth aged 15 to 24 stood at 34.7 percent, a 0.7-percent month-on-month decline.

At the same time, 23.082 million people or 58.1 percent of the total working population were employed, unchanged over September 2017.

As well, ISTAT said 73,000 jobs or 0.3 percent were added in the August-October period, all of them on temporary contracts.

On a yearly basis, unemployment dropped by 4.6 percent and employment grew 1.1 percent, ISTAT said.

While unemployment is still high, positive new data appears to suggest Italy's economy has turned a corner after over half a decade of stagnation.

Earlier this month, ISTAT raised its 2017 gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecast to 1.5 percent based on new jobs and domestic demand, while Standard & Poor's ratings agency said Italy's GDP grew 1.5 percent year-on-year in the second quarter of 2017, the highest read in six years.

However, center-left Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni has warned that Italy is not out of the woods yet, and unemployment is still the biggest issue the government must tackle.

"Economic recoveries can take place without (creating new) jobs," and it is the task of government to "intervene against exclusion and poverty", Gentiloni said earlier this month.

Popular discontent over unemployment is one of the key factors as Italy's political parties try to sway voters their way ahead of the next general election, likely to be held in spring 2018. Enditem

 

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