More Italians in Work

Italy’s unemployment rate fell from 11.9% in 2015 to 11.7% in 2016, the lowest since 2012, ISTAT said Friday, ANSA reported. Employment rose 1.3%, the statistics agency said. The number of those in work rose for the over 50s and for 15-to-24-year-olds, it said. The employment rate rose 0.9 percentage points to 57.2%. Italy’s average employment in 2016 was 22.758 million people, the highest since the beginning of the financial crisis in 2008 when there were 23.09 million employed, ISTAT said. At 11.7%, the unemployment rate is the lowest in four years—in 2012 it was 10.7% while in 2013 it jumped to 12.1%.