ROME, March 4 (Reuters) – Italy’s unemployment rate fell to 5.1% in January and a net 80,000 jobs were added during the month, data showed on Wednesday, as long-running job creation continues despite weak growth in the euro zone’s third-largest economy.
The jobless rate was the lowest since the current series began in 2004.
A Reuters poll of eight analysts had forecast a January jobless rate at 5.6%.
The unemployment rate in December was revised down slightly to 5.5% from an originally reported 5.6%, national statistics bureau ISTAT reported.
In the three-month period between November and January employment was up by 23,000, or 0.1%, compared with the previous quarter.
In January, the youth unemployment rate, measuring job-seekers between 15 and 24 years old, fell to 18.9% from 20.9% the previous month.
The employment rate, one of the lowest in the euro zone, climbed to 62.6% in January from 62.4% the previous month.
However, so-called “inactive” people, neither working nor looking for work, also rose in January from December by 35,000, or 0.3%, ISTAT said.
In January there were 70,000 more people with a job compared to the same month in 2025, a rise of 0.3%.
The euro zone’s third-largest economy grew by 0.5% in 2025, from 0.8% the previous year, ISTAT reported on Monday.
Rome is forecasting growth of 0.7% this year, which would be a fourth consecutive year of sub-1% growth despite a steady inflow of billions of euros of EU-post-COVID 19 recovery funds.
(Reporting by Antonella Cinelli, graphic by Stefano Bernabei, editing by Gavin Jones)
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