Employment and unemployment (provisional estimates)

In February 2019, the number of employed people moderately declined compared with January (-0.1%, -14 thousand); the employment rate decreased to 58.6% (-0.1 percentage points). The fall of employment involved mainly people aged 35-49 years (-74 thousand), while people aged over 50 continued to go up (+51 thousand).

In February, the number of unemployed persons rose by 1.2% (+34 thousand); the increase involved men and women and persons aged over 35. The unemployment rate grow up to 10.7% (+0.1 percentage points), while the youth rate slight decreased to 32.8% (-0.1 percentage points).

In February, inactive people aged 15-64 declined (-0.1%, -14 thousand); the decrease involved only women and people aged 25-34 years or over 50. The inactivity rate was stable to 34.3% for the fourth consecutive month.

In the period from December 2018 to February 2019, employment remained stable compared with the previous quarter, even by gender.

In the last three months, the stability of employment was accompanied by the drop of unemployed persons (-0.5%, -14 thousand) and inactive people aged 15-64 years (-0.2%, -21 thousand).

Employment rose by 0.5% (+113 thousand) compared with February 2018. The increase concerned men and women, involving people aged 25-34 years (+21 thousand) and over 50 (+316 thousand).

On a yearly basis, the growth of employment was accompanied by the fall of unemployed persons (-1.4%, -39 thousand) and inactive people aged 15-64 (-1.3%, -169 thousand).