Italy’s Unemployment Rate Rises to 6.2% as Jobless Count Increases by 48,000

Italy’s unemployment rate rose in August even as the country’s total employment level barely changed, a sign that the labour market lost some momentum after a generally stronger run earlier in the year. The seasonally adjusted jobless rate increased to 6.2% from the prior month on Istat’s measure, while the number of unemployed people rose by 48,000 to 1.591 million.

The monthly report from Italy’s national statistics institute showed that the labour market did not weaken across the board. Total employment was effectively unchanged at 24.352 million, and the number of inactive people aged 15 to 64 declined by 21,000. Even so, the rise in the unemployment rate and the increase in youth unemployment suggested that labour conditions were less favorable than they had looked a month earlier.

According to Istat’s August labour-force release, the employment rate edged down to 63.0% from 63.1%, while the inactivity rate slipped to 32.7% from 32.8%. The unemployment rate for people aged 15 to 24 climbed to 20.3%, up 0.6 percentage point from the previous month, leaving youth joblessness far above the national headline rate.

Jobless total rose even as headline employment held steady

The most striking feature of the August report was the divergence between stable employment and a larger pool of people looking for work. In a simple labour-market sense, that can happen when more people actively search for jobs and are therefore counted in the labour force, even if the total number of people in work does not increase at the same time. That pattern appeared in Italy in August, with inactivity falling modestly while unemployment increased.

Istat said the 48,000 monthly increase in unemployed people, equal to a 3.1% rise, affected both men and women and all age groups. The institute also reported that the number of inactive people aged 15 to 64 fell by 21,000, or 0.2%, with the decline concentrated among men and most age groups. For women, inactivity was broadly stable.

Those movements help explain why the labour market could show flat employment and still deliver a higher unemployment rate. People who move from inactivity into active job search count as unemployed if they are without work, available to start and seeking a job. That matters because it means a rise in unemployment does not automatically point to collapsing hiring. In August, it also reflected more labour-force participation at the margin.

Istat’s detailed breakdown showed that the employment mix shifted even though the overall total did not. Permanent employees increased to 16.669 million, but that gain was offset by a decline in temporary employees to 2.391 million and a drop in the number of self-employed workers to 5.292 million. By age, employment rose among people aged 50 and older, fell among those aged 25 to 34 and 35 to 49, and was unchanged for workers aged 15 to 24.

Quarterly and annual figures still point to a labour market above year-ago levels

The monthly deterioration did not erase the broader gains Italy has posted over the past year. Compared with August 2025, the number of employed people was up by 291,000, or 1.2%, while the employment rate increased by 0.6 percentage point. That year-over-year gain was driven by higher numbers of permanent employees and self-employed workers, partly offset by a decline in temporary employment.

Istat said permanent employees increased by 370,000 over the year and self-employed workers rose by 78,000, while temporary employees fell by 157,000. The annual comparison also showed that the increase in employment was spread across both men and women, as well as people aged 25 to 34 and those aged 50 and older. Employment declined over the year among people aged 15 to 24 and 35 to 49.

Even so, the unemployment picture was less favorable on an annual basis. The number of unemployed people rose by 129,000 from August 2025, an 8.8% increase, while the number of inactive people aged 15 to 64 fell by 381,000, or 3.0%. Taken together, those figures suggest a larger share of Italians remained engaged with the labour market, but not all of them were finding work quickly enough to prevent unemployment from moving higher.

The quarterly data were somewhat firmer than the one-month snapshot. For the June-to-August period, employment increased by 40,000, or 0.2%, compared with March to May. Unemployment still rose on that comparison, up by 123,000 or 8.5%, while inactivity among people aged 15 to 64 fell by 164,000, or 1.3%.

That quarterly combination again points to a labour market that was still expanding in net employment terms, but at the same time absorbing more people into active job seeking. In practical terms, employers were still supporting a relatively high level of employment, yet the pace of labour-market improvement appeared less clean than the annual employment gain alone might imply.

Italy remained below the euro area average, but revisions show the summer trend softened

Italy’s 6.2% unemployment rate remained below the euro area’s 6.4% rate in August, according to Eurostat’s monthly unemployment release, though it was slightly above the wider European Union rate of 6.1%. Eurostat estimated that 11.357 million people were unemployed across the euro area in August and 13.600 million across the EU as a whole.

Eurostat’s country table put Italy’s number of unemployed at 1.591 million in August, consistent with Istat’s national release. The EU data also showed that Italy’s youth unemployment rate stood at 20.3%, again matching Istat’s estimate and underscoring how much more difficult the labour market remains for younger Italians than for the overall workforce.

One technical detail matters for month-to-month interpretation. Eurostat said Italy’s July unemployment rate was revised upward by 0.2 percentage point in the latest release. That kind of revision is normal in labour-market data and reflects updated monthly information and seasonal-adjustment processes. It also means readers should focus more on the directional message of the August report than on any simplistic reading of a single previously published monthly figure.

The directional message was clear enough. Italy’s labour market did not suffer an outright employment contraction in August, and the annual level of employment remained comfortably above the same month last year. At the same time, the increase in the unemployment rate, the rise in the number of jobless people and the jump in youth unemployment all suggested that the labour market was no longer improving as smoothly as it had earlier in 2026.

Istat is scheduled to publish the next monthly employment and unemployment release on 29 October, which will show whether August marked a temporary setback or the start of a softer autumn trend in the Italian labour market.