ROME, April 30 (Reuters) – Italy’s unemployment rate fell to 5.2% in March but a net 12,000 jobs were lost during the month, national statistics bureau ISTAT reported on Thursday.
The jobless rate was slightly below a median forecast of 5.3% in a Reuters poll of eight analysts.
The unemployment rate in February was revised up to 5.4% from an originally reported 5.3%.
In March, the youth unemployment rate, measuring job-seekers between 15 and 24 years old, rose to 18.1% from 17.6% the previous month.
The decrease of both employed people and job-seekers in March is linked to a rise in the number of so-called “inactive” people, neither working nor looking for work.
This “inactivity rate” edged up in March to 34.1% from 34.0%, ISTAT said.
In the three-month period between January and March, the number of people in work was up by 0.1% compared with the previous quarter.
However, in March there were 30,000 fewer people in work compared to the same month in 2025, a marginal decline of 0.1%.
The employment rate, one of the lowest in the euro zone, stood at 62.4% in March, stable from the month before.
Giorgia Meloni’s government currently has an economic growth target of 0.6% for this year, revised marginally down last week due to surging energy prices and geopolitical tensions, from the 0.7% target set in September.
Italian gross domestic product rose 0.5% in 2025, a third straight year of sub-1% growth.
(Reporting by Antonella Cinelli, graphic by Stefano Bernabei, editing by Gavin Jones)
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