Eurozone unemployment at 6.2 percent. In Italy, it falls but stays among the highest

Brussels – In January 2025, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in the eurozone stood at 6.2 percent (5.8 percent in the EU as a whole), remaining stable compared to December 2024 but slightly below the 6.5 percent recorded in January 2024 (6.1 percent in the EU). Italy saw the same trend, with the jobless rate falling from 7.1 percent in January 2024 to 6.4 percent in December to stabilize at 6.3 percent in January 2025.

Data published by Eurostat this morning (March 4) estimates that in January, Europeans without jobs decreased by 510,000, including 194,000 in Italy, compared to a year ago.

Despite the actual drop in Italian unemployment, which is just half a percentage point higher than the EU average, Italy is still among the worst performers in Europe in the employment sphere. The youth unemployment rate (15-24 years old) fell to 18.7 percent (0.3 percent lower than in December 2024), yet it remains the eighth highest in the Union, whose average is stable at 14.6 percent. Istat said that the 25-34-year-old unemployed bracket in Italy recorded an increase in the first month of 2025, while when looking at the gender-adjusted unemployment rate, our country sees a slight decrease in male unemployment, which falls from 5.7 percent in December 2024 to 5.6 percent in January 2025 (the sixth highest in the EU).

However, the figure that brings less honor to Italy is the female unemployment rate, which remains unchanged from the last month of last year at 7.3 percent, the third highest in Europe (lower only than Greece and Spain) and far from the EU average of 6.0 percent.