ROME: Italy’s unemployment rate fell to 6.0% in October from a marginally upwardly revised 6.2% in September, national statistics bureau ISTAT reported on Tuesday, with a net 75,000 jobs created during the month.
A Reuters survey of 9 analysts had forecast an October jobless rate at 6.1%, the originally reported rate for September.
In October, the youth unemployment rate, measuring job-seekers between 15 and 24 years old, decreased to 19.8% from 21.6%.
The employment rate, one of the lowest in the euro zone, edged up to 62.7% from September’s 62.6%, marking the highest reading since the current statistical series began in 2004.
In the period between August and October, employment in the euro zone’s third-largest economy was broadly stable compared with the previous three months, ISTAT said.
In October, there were 224,000 more people in work than in the same month last year, an increase equal to 0.9%.
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The so-called “inactivity rate”, measuring those neither working nor looking for work, was stable at 33.2%.
Italy’s long-running increase in employment has come against a backdrop of weak economic growth and stagnant wages.
Gross domestic product increased by a marginal 0.1% in the third quarter following a 0.1% contraction in the previous three months.
The government in October lowered its forecast for full-year 2025 growth to 0.5% from an April projection of 0.6%, after a 0.7% growth rate in 2024.
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