Italy’s unemployment declines to 11.5 pct in February

Italy’s unemployment declined in February to 11.5 percent from a revised 11.8 percent in the previous month, data from the statistical office Istat showed Monday. Data beat analysts' expectations for the jobless rate to remain unchanged at 11.9 percent in February.

The number of people looking for work in February fell by 83,000, the biggest decline on a monthly basis since July 2015, the data also showed. There were 8,000 more people employed in February compared with the prior month, Istat said.

The total number of unemployed stood at 2.984 million, down 2.7 percent over the previous month. The employment rate was 57.5 percent, unchanged from January. The youth unemployment rate declined to 35.2 in February from 36.9 percent in January.

Analysts expect employment to be hurt in coming months by the phasing out of a discount on employer-paid social contributions for new hires introduced in 2015 by then-Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s government.