Employment and unemployment (Provisional estimates) - January 2022

In January 2022 the number of employed people was substantially stable, a drop was recorded for unemployed persons while inactive people rose.

On a monthly basis, the stability of employment was the result of a rise among men and people aged under 25 or over 50 years, and a decrease for women and 25-49 years old persons. Overall, the employment rate remained unchanged at 59.2%.

In the last month, the decline of unemployed people (-2.3%, -51 thousand) concerned only men and all age groups except people aged 35-49. The unemployment rate fell to 8.8% (-0.2 p.p.), the youth rate to 25.3% (-1.3 p.p.).

In January the growth of inactive people aged 15-64 (+0.6%, +74 thousand) was recorded for women and people under the age of 50. The inactivity rate rose to 35.0% (+0.2 p.p.).

In the period November 2021-January 2022, with respect to the previous quarter (August-October), the employment rose (+0.5%, +120 thousand).

In the last three months, a drop was registered for both unemployed persons (-1.8%, -41 thousand) and inactive people aged 15-64 years (-1.4%, -188 thousand).

Compared with January 2021, the number of employed persons increased by 3.3% (+729 thousand), the growth concerning both genders and all age groups; the employment rate showed an increase of 2.4 p.p. .

On a yearly basis, the rise of employed people was accompanied by a decrease of both unemployed persons (-12.9%, -326 thousand) and inactive people aged 15-64 (-5.0%, -684 thousand).