Italy's employment rate rose to 62.7% in the first quarter of 2026, up 0.2 of a percentage point on the previous three months to take it to the highest level since ISTAT's quarterly employment data started in 2004, the national statistics agency said on Friday.
    It said that the unemployment rate fell by 0.4 of a point to 5.3%, the lowest level since the beginning of the data series, while the inactivity rate rose 0.1 of a point to 33.7%.
    Istat said Friday that 24.207 million people were in employment in Italy in the first quarter of this year, up by 67,000 with respect to the previous three months and by 50,000 compared to the January-March period in 2025.
    The agency said the quarter-on-quarter rise was driven by a 9,000-strong increase in workers on fixed-term contracts and, above all, a rise of 72,000 in the number of self-employed workers, which more than offset a decline of 13,000 in the number of permanent employees.
    It said the number of the unemployed people was down by 110,000 on the fourth quarter of 2025 and by 394,000 year-on-year.
    The number of people aged 15-64 who are not active on the labour market was up by 44,000 with respect to the last three months of last year and by 320,000 compared to the first quarter of 2025.
   
   

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