Unemployment applications up 31% in first 10 months of 2013

(ANSA) – Rome, December 10 – Unemployment applications in recession-hit Italy jumped 31% in the first 10 months of this year with respect to the same period in 2012, pensions and social security agency INPS said Tuesday.

The agency said it received 1.7 million claims for unemployment benefit in the January-October period, compared to 1.3 million in the first 10 months of 2012.

Unemployment in Italy has reached a record high of 12.5% of the working population, with over four in 10 under 25s out of work, as the country struggles to emerge from its longest recession since World War II.