Italy jobless rate at record low of 5% in May, but 22,000 jobs lost

ROME, July 2 (Reuters) - Italy's unemployment rate fell slightly to 5.0% in May but a net 22,000 jobs were lost during the month, with the fall in the jobless rate due to people no longer looking for work, national statistics bureau ISTAT reported on Thursday.

• The unemployment rate was below a median forecast of 5.1% in a Reuters poll of eight analysts and was the lowest since ISTAT's current statistical series began in January 2004.

• The youth unemployment rate, measuring job-seekers between 15 and 24 years old, fell in May to 15.1% from a downwardly revised 16.4% in April.

• Youth unemployment was also the lowest since January 2004.

• Despite the jobs lost in May, in the three months from March to May employment was still up 0.5% compared with the December-February period, with 119,000 more people in work.

• Employment was up by 228,000 in May compared with the same month last year, an increase of 0.9%.

• Italy's employment rate, the lowest in the euro zone, slipped in May to 63.0% from 63.1% the month before.

• Employment has risen despite weak economic growth.

• Giorgia Meloni's government currently has growth targets of 0.6% for this year and for 2027.

• Italian gross domestic product rose 0.5% in 2025, a third straight year of sub-1% growth.

(Reporting By Gavin Jones, graphic by Stefano Bernabei)