The unemployment rate surveyed by Istat fell to 9.7% (-0.5 points) in June and returned, after five months, to below the 10% threshold. Among young people it stood at 29.4% (-1.3 points).
In June, therefore, Istat noted a strengthening of the “trend of employment growth that began in February 2021”. In particular, compared to May there are 166 thousand more employees (+ 0.7%), a figure that rises to + 267 thousand workers if compared to June 2020 (+ 1.2%). Comparing the second quarter of this year with the previous one, the level of employment is higher by 1.0%, with an increase of 223 thousand units.
With the growth in employment that began in February 2021 and continued until June, “over the five months there is an increase of over 400,000 employees”. However, according to Istat, the rise does not involve self-employed workers, who in the same period recorded a decrease of 44,000 units, despite the recovery of 39,000 units in the last month. Compared to February 2020, the month prior to the start of the pandemic, the number of employees is still lower by more than 470 thousand units.
In detail, the employment rate rises to 57.9% (+0.5 points) and also the decrease in the number of people looking for work (-5.1% compared to May, equal to -131 thousand units) men than women and all age groups. Between May and June the number of inactive people aged between 15 and 64 also decreased (-0.3%, equal to -34 thousand units); in this case, the decline involves women, children under 24 and over 50-year-olds. The inactivity rate drops to 35.8% (-0.1 points). In the comparison of the second quarter with the previous one, the growth in employment is associated with the decrease in people looking for work (-0.8%, equal to -20 thousand units) and the more consistent one of inactive between 15 and 64 years ( -2.0%, equal to -279 thousand units). In the annual comparison, however, the growth in employment (+ 1.2%, equal to + 267 thousand units) concerns men and women, employees and workers of all age groups with the exception of 35-49 year-olds, while the employment rate, in increase of 1.1 percentage points, rises for all age groups.
Compared to June 2020, the number of people looking for work is also growing (+ 3.5%, equal to + 81 thousand units) and the number of inactive people between 15 and 64 years of age is down sharply (-4.2%, equal to to -592 thousand), which had increased exceptionally at the beginning of the health emergency.
Also in June, meanwhile, the Eurozone’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 7.7%, down from 8% in May 2021 and from 8% in June 2020. The EU unemployment rate was instead by 7.1%, down from 7.3% in May 2021 and down compared to 7.3% in June 2020. This is the result of the data published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. Eurostat estimates that 14.916 million men and women were unemployed in the EU last June, of which 12.517 million in the euro area. Compared to May 2021, the number of unemployed fell by 487,000 in the EU and by 423,000 in the eurozone.