Unemployment nudges back up

Consumer group describes figures as 'disastrous'

(ANSA) - Rome, July 1 - Consumer rights group Codacons on Tuesday described as "disastrous" new figures for unemployment in Italy, which saw the national jobless rate nudge back up to 12.6% in May from 12.5% in April and 12.1% in May 2013 as the country struggled to emerge from its longest and deepest recession since the second world war. The figures "testify to the total failure of Italy's political class," said Codacons of the preliminary estimates published by the national statistics institute Istat, which nonetheless put joblessness among 15-24 year olds down slightly at 43% from 43.3% the previous month but up 4.2% compared to May 2013.

In absolute terms an estimated 3.2 million people of employment age were out of work in May, 127,000 more than in the same month in 2013, Istat said. However, on a percentage basis this represented a "slight improvement" over the all-time high of 12.7% in January and February, the agency added.

Meanwhile female unemployment reached 13.8%, the highest level since monthly records began in 2004. Susanna Camusso, leader of Italy's biggest labour union confederation CGIL, urged the government of Premier Matteo Renzi to invest in job creation as the only effective tool for kickstarting the economy and bringing the jobless rate down. "There can be no chance of a real recovery without investment in creating jobs and a reduction of the unemployment rate, which is now extremely high both among those who have been made redundant and among youth," Camusso said in a radio interview with state broadcaster RAI.