Employment and unemployment (provisional estimates)

In September 2020, employment remained unchanged, while unemployment continued the decrease already began in August and inactivity kept on dropping.

On a monthly basis, the stability of employment (+6 thousand) was the result of a growth among women and over50 on one side, and of a decrease for people aged 25-34 on the other. Overall, the employment rate grew to 58.2% (+0.1 p.p.).

In the last month, the drop of unemployed people (-0.9%, -22 thousand) involved only men (-3.5%, 46 thousand), whereas among women an increase was recorded (+2.1%, +24 thousand). The unemployment rate declined to 9.6% ( 0.1 percentage points) and the youth rate fell to 29.7% (-1.7 p.p.).

In September the slight decline of inactive people aged 15-64 (-0.1%, -15 thousand) was the effect of a decrease for women ( 0.6%, 52 thousand), not fully balanced by the rise among men (+0.8%, +37 thousand). The inactivity rate remained unchanged at 35.5%.

In the period July-September 2020, with respect to the previous quarter, employment grew (+0.5%, +113 thousand) for both genders.

In the last three months, a growth was registered in the number of unemployed persons (+18.1%, +379 thousand), while inactive people aged 15-64 years dropped (-3.7%, -521 thousand).

Compared to September 2019, employment showed a decrease in terms of figures (-1.7%, -387 thousand) and rate (-0.9 percentage points).

On a yearly basis, the decrease of employed people was accompanied by a drop of unemployed persons (-2.3%, -59 thousand) and a rise of inactive people aged 15-64 (+2.5%, +333 thousand).