Employment, record in July: +56,000 and unemployment rate at 6.5%
In July, employment in Italy reached a new record with an increase of 56,000 people at work. The unemployment rate dropped to 6.5%. The increase in employment is led by women and the self-employed, while there is a decrease in employees. The increase of the redundancy fund is negatively influencing employee employment
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Key points
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Employment set a new record in July. With +56 thousand people at work, the total number of employed in Italy exceeds the psychological threshold of 24 million. To be exact, we are at 24 million and 9 thousand people claiming to be employed.
The snapshot (provisional data) is from the Istat, which highlights, going into detail, how employment growth in July was substantially driven by women (+54 thousand female workers) and the self-employed (+75 thousand), who reached 5 million 233 thousand.
Unfortunately, and this is a small wake-up call, the number of employees is decreasing, both permanent employees, down to 16.19 million, and temporary employees, down to 2.757 million. On employment in dependency weighs the rise in the redundancy fund, which is mainly affecting industry.
+437 thousand permanent jobs in the year
Over the year, the number of employed persons exceeded that of July 2023 by 490 thousand. Here the boost of stable employment remains strong: +437 thousand permanent employees, +249 thousand self-employed and -196 thousand temporary employees.
Less unemployed, but more inactive
The number of jobseekers decreased (-6.1 per cent or -107 thousand) for both gender components and in all age groups. The unemployment rate dropped to 6.5 per cent (-0.4 points), the youth rate to 20.8 per cent (-0.6 points). The number of inactive persons, however, increases (+0.6%, or +73,000) among men, women and 25-49 year-olds; it decreases among 15-24 year-olds and those over 50. The inactivity rate rises to 33.3% (+0.2 points). Another alarm bell, given that inactivity, among which the discouraged lurk, rises in the core group of the labour force, namely the under-50s.
