Einar H. Dyvik
Research expert covering Nordics and global data for society, economy, and politics
Employment in Italy - statistics & facts
Italy is the country with the lowest employment rate in Europe. In 2024, 62 percent of the Italian population aged 15 years or more had a full or part-time job, compared to 71 percent of the European Union average. However, this figure was the highest ever recorded in the country, while the unemployment rate fell to the lowest levels since at least 2018. These indicators suggest that, on the one hand, recent policies aimed at encouraging employment have had positive outcomes in stimulating the labor market and reducing joblessness, with a remarkable decline of youth unemployment, which decreased by half between 2014 and 2024. On the other, these measures have been insufficient to close the gap with other European countries, and have not mitigated crucial issues such as lower female occupation and the employment divide between the north and the south of the country. Moreover, salaries have not kept up with inflation, resulting in a progressive reduction of purchasing power. With Italy being one of the few European countries without a legal minimum salary, some have proposed that the introduction of a statutory minimum wage could mitigate the phenomenon of the working poor.
