About 500,000 jobs have been lost in Italy due to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus pandemic. This was revealed by the Italian National Statistics Office (ISTAT) on Thursday.
According to the statistics, in May, the employment figure in the country stood at 22.8 million, the lowest figure in four years, while the unemployment rate increased from 6.6% in April to 7.8%.
The ISTAT stated; “The ranks of inactives (people excluded from job seekers’ statistics) have risen by almost 900,000 between February and May, to 14.289 million”.
Since the outbreak, the total number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in Italy is over 241,000. 191,000 cases have recovered from the infection while 34,788 cases have died from the virus.
According to the National Institute of Health, coronavirus was already in Italy by December 2019. Italian scientists said sewage water from two cities, Milan and Turin contained genetic traces of the virus at the time. However, Italy’s first case was reported in mid-February 2020.
In May, the European Union had predicted that Italy’s public debt will hit 160% of GDP this year and its economy will shrink by over a tenth. Having been affected earlier and harder by the outbreak than other euro zone countries, the European Union economics Commissioner, Paolo Gentiloni, said Italy’s recovery from the virus is forecast to take longer than elsewhere in the bloc.
