Employment and unemployment (provisional estimates)

In July 2020, after four months of declines, employment returned to grow and the increase of unemployment continued, against a drop of inactivity.

On a monthly basis, the increase of employment (+0.4%, +85 thousand) concerned mostly women (+0.8%, +80 thousand), leading the employment rate to 57.8% (+0.2 p.p.).

In the last month, the considerable growth of unemployed people (+5.8%, +134 thousand) concerned more women (+7.3%, +80 thousand) than men (+4.4%, +55 thousand). The unemployment rate rose back to 9.7% (+0.5 percentage points) and the youth rate increased to 31.1% (+1.5 p.p.).

In July the decline of inactive people aged 15-64 (-1.6%, -224 thousand) was registered for both men ( 1.1%, 56 thousand) and women (-1.9%, -168 thousand), taking the inactivity rate down to 35.8% ( 0.6 percentage points).

With respect to the previous quarter, in the period May-July 2020, employment considerably decreased (1.2%,286 thousand) for both genders.

In the last three months, a growth was registered in the number of unemployed persons (+10.4%, +218 thousand) and among inactive people aged 15-64 years (+0.3%, +39 thousand).

Compared to July 2019, employment showed a decrease in terms of figures (-2.4%, -556 thousand) and rate (-1.3 percentage points).

On a yearly basis, the decrease of employed people was accompanied by a fall of unemployed persons (-1.8%, -44 thousand) and a growth of inactive people aged 15-64 (+3.6%, +475 thousand).

The survey process encountered some difficulties caused by the current health emergency, in particular in the data collection phase. Data treatment strategies have contrasted negative statistical effects and allowed for July 2020 data dissemination (see the Methodological note, page 11).