Italy unemployment drops to near 15-year low of 6.4 per cent

[Strengthandhonour]

Italy unemployment drops to near 15-year low of 6.4 per cent
Jun 19, 2007, 11:15 GMT

Rome - Italy's unemployment rate fell to a near 15-year low of 6.4 per cent in the first three months of 2007, Italian statistics institute Istat said Tuesday.
This compares with an unadjusted rate of 6.9 per cent in the previous quarter and with a 7.6 per cent rate registered in the same quarter of 2006.
The first quarter seasonally-adjusted rate was estimated at 6.2 per cent, the lowest such figure since the fourth quarter of 1992.
The number of jobless in Europe's fourth-largest economy has been falling steadily since the approval in 2003 of labour reforms introducing more flexibility to the market.
Despite the drop, unemployment remains persistently high in the country's poorer southern regions, with Istat data published Tuesday estimating the rate at 11.4 per cent, exactly three times the 3.8 per cent rate registered in Italy's affluent north.




source: Italy unemployment drops to near 15-year low of 6.4 per cent - Business

[Kernunnos]

For what can be read elsewhere it is uniquely due to immigrant level jobs being taken just by immigrants: italian youth with a decent high school diploma or even with a fancy degree are most often unemployed or underemployed for years.


In central and southern italy degree holders end up in thirld world style call centers, in the north such people often are lucky if they get secretarial or low level white collar jobs.

Just a few universities like the Bocconi open the door to good business careers.

For the rest, there is plenty of posts at the assembly line in the north or gathering tomatoes under the mafia caring eyes in the south.