Italy March jobless rate edges up to 6.0%, in line with forecast

ROME (Reuters) -Italy's jobless rate rose marginally to 6.0% in March from 5.9% in February, national statistics bureau ISTAT reported on Friday, with a loss of 16,000 jobs in the month.

The 6.0% jobless rate was in line with the median forecast in a Reuters survey of 7 analysts.

The youth unemployment rate, measuring job-seekers between 15 and 24 years old, rose to 19.0% in March from 17.3% in February.

Despite the slight fall in employment in March, the number of people in work in the euro zone's third largest economy was still up by 450,000 or 1.9%, compared with March 2024, ISTAT said.

The employment rate, one of the lowest in the euro zone, stood at 63.0%, stable compared with February.

In the first quarter of this year employment was up by 224,000, or 0.9%, compared with the previous three months, ISTAT said.

The statistics bureau said on Wednesday the economy grew by 0.3% in the first quarter from the previous three months, a slightly stronger reading than expected.

In March the number of so-called "inactive" people neither working nor looking for work, decreased by 11,000, or 0.1% from the month before, with the inactivity rate unchanged at 32.9%.

(Reporting by Antonella Cinelli, graphic by Stefano Bernabei, editing by Gavin Jones)