The labour input, as measured by hours worked, remains stable compared to the previous quarter and increases compared to the fourth quarter of 2024 (+1.6%). In the same period GDP increases by 0.3% quarter-on-quarter and by 0.8% year-on-year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The number of employed persons, standing at 24 million 121 thousand, increases compared with the previous quarter, (+37 thousand, +0.2%), following a growth in permanent employees (+76 thousand, +0.5%) and in self-employed (+21 thousand, +0.4%), which more than offset the decline in temporary employees (-60 thousand, -2.4%). The number of unemployed persons falls (-84 thousand, -5.5% over three months), while that of inactive individuals aged 15-64 rises (+61 thousand, +0.5%). Net of seasonal effects, the employment rate remains stable at 62.5%, the unemployment rate decreases to 5.6% (-0.3 percentage points), while the inactivity rate rises to 33.7% (+0.2 percentage points). According to provisional data for January 2026, the month-on-month increase in the number of employed persons (+0.3%) and in the employment rate (+0.2 percentage points) combine with a decrease in the unemployment rate (-0.4 percentage points) and a rise in the inactivity rate among those aged 15-64 (+0.1 percentage points).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On a yearly trend basis, after a quarter of stability, the number of employed persons returns to growth (+89 thousand, +0.4%). The increase in permanent employees (+1.0%) and self-employed workers (+3.0%) more than offset the decline in temporary employees (-8.6%). In the fourth quarter of 2025, after a slight increase in the previous quarter, the number of unemployed falls again (-138 thousand, -8.9% over one year) while, after three quarters of decline, the number of inactive individuals aged 15-64 rises (+49 thousand, +0.4%). The rates follow the same pattern: the employment rate rises to 62.4% (+0.1 percentage points), the unemployment rate falls to 5.5% (-0.5 percentage points), and the inactivity rate increases to 33.9% (+0.2 percentage points).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the enterprise side, total jobs grow by 0.3% quarter-on-quarter, slightly higher for part-time (+0.5%) compared to full-time employees (+0.3%), bringing the share of total jobs that are part-time to 28.9% (+0.1 percentage points). Year-on-year total jobs increase by 1.6%, similar for both components, implying a small decrease in the share of part-time. Quarter-on-quarter, both temporary employment agency and on-call jobs record an increase (+1.0% and +1.5% respectively) with the former remaining stable and the latter increasing significantly on an annual basis (+5.7%). Per capita hours worked decrease compared to the previous quarter (-0.5%) but increase relative to the fourth quarter of 2024 (+0.5%). The use of short-time working allowances decreases to 7.8 hours per 1,000 hours worked (-1.7 hours per 1,000 hours worked with respect to the fourth quarter 2024). The job vacancy rate stands at 1.9%, representing an increase compared to the previous quarter (+0.1%). However, comparing to the fourth quarter 2024, it still decreases (-0.1%). <\/a>On a quarterly basis, total labour cost increases by 0.3%, as in its two components, wages and social contributions. Compared to the fourth quarter of 2024, labour cost increase is still significant, equal to 2.9% due to a growth of wages equal to 2.5% and a new significant rise in social contributions, equal to 4.2%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the 2025 annual average, the increase in employed persons (+185 thousand, +0.8% over one year) associates with a decrease in unemployed persons (-88 thousand, -5.3%) and in inactive individuals aged 15-64 (-58 thousand, -0.5%). The employment rate for those aged 15-64 rises to 62.5% (+0.3 percentage points over one year), while the unemployment rate (6.1%, -0.4 percentage points) and the inactivity rate for those aged 15-64 (33.3%, -0.1 percentage points) fall. On the enterprise side, the growth in labour input continues, albeit at a slower pace than in 2024: the number of employees increases by 1.7% and the total number of hours worked by 2.1% (net of calendar effects); the use of temporary layoffs decreases (-1.0 hours per thousand worked) while the use of overtime increases (+0.1%). The average vacancy rate in 2025 decreases by 0.3 percentage points, recording the value of 1.8% (compared to 2.1% on average in 2024). Labour cost grows at a sustained rate (+3.6%), mainly due to several National Contracts\u2019 renewals and to the reduction in the effects of some social contribution reliefs. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In Q4 2025 the number of employed persons increased by 37 thousand, +0.2% compared to Q3<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4082],"tags":[3353,3296,3467,3301,3495,3196,3229,3686,3140,3297,2968,3208,3323],"regione":[],"tema":[4067,4071,4068],"class_list":["post-120829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-release","tag-earnings","tag-employed","tag-enterprises","tag-hours-worked","tag-labour","tag-labour-cost","tag-labour-market","tag-number-of-jobs","tag-redundancy-funds","tag-social-contributions","tag-flash","tag-unemployed","tag-vacancies","tema-industry-and-construction","tema-labour","tema-services"],"meta_fields":{"data_pubblicazione":"","descrizioneperiodo":"","titolobreve":"","news":"","news_rss":"","sottotitolo":""},"acf":[],"wpml_current_locale":"en_US","wpml_translations":[],"tags-info":[{"id":3353,"label":"earnings","slug":"earnings"},{"id":3296,"label":"employed","slug":"employed"},{"id":3467,"label":"enterprises","slug":"enterprises"},{"id":3301,"label":"hours worked","slug":"hours-worked"},{"id":3495,"label":"labour","slug":"labour"},{"id":3196,"label":"labour cost","slug":"labour-cost"},{"id":3229,"label":"labour market","slug":"labour-market"},{"id":3686,"label":"number of jobs","slug":"number-of-jobs"},{"id":3140,"label":"redundancy funds","slug":"redundancy-funds"},{"id":3297,"label":"social security contributions","slug":"social-contributions"},{"id":2968,"label":"statistics flash","slug":"flash"},{"id":3208,"label":"unemployed","slug":"unemployed"},{"id":3323,"label":"vacancies","slug":"vacancies"}],"categories-info":[{"id":4082,"label":"Press release","slug":"press-release"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.istat.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.istat.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.istat.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.istat.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.istat.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120829"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.istat.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120829\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":120899,"href":"https:\/\/www.istat.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120829\/revisions\/120899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.istat.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.istat.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.istat.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120829"},{"taxonomy":"regione","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.istat.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/regione?post=120829"},{"taxonomy":"tema","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.istat.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tema?post=120829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}