Italy's employment rate rose to 62.5% last year but remains last in the European Union, Eurostat said Friday.
    In Italy, the employment rate in the 15-64 age group rose by 0.3 points in 2025, reaching 62.5%, but our country remains last in Europe, primarily due to the low labor market participation of women.
    This is what emerges from recently updated Eurostat data according to which overall the employment rate in Italy is 8.5 points lower than the EU-27 average (which rose to 71%) but while for men the difference is 4.2 points (71.2% in Italy, 75.4% in the EU) for women it exceeds 13.
    In our country, just over one in two women between the ages of 15 and 64 works (53.8%), while in the EU the figure is 66.6%.
    Employment growth in Italy in 2025 is slightly higher than the EU average (0.3 percentage points compared to the EU average of 0.2 percentage points) but far from what is needed to close the gap.
    Over the same period, the rate in Greece rose from 63.3% to 64.6% (+1.3 percentage points), while compared to 2019, the rate rose by 8.5 percentage points compared to 3.5 in Italy (an EU average of 2.9 percentage points).
    In Spain, the employment rate increased by 0.9 percentage points compared to 2024 and by 3.7 percentage points since 2019.

Italy is particularly affected by the difficulties faced by women, who, in the 15-64 age group, have an employment gap of 17.4 percentage points compared to men, with 53.8% of women employed compared to 71.2% of men.
    The gap has narrowed compared to 2024 (it was 17.8 points) but remains almost double the EU average (8.8 points).
    Among those aged 20 to 64, the situation has improved slightly, with the employment rate in Italy rising to 67.6% (0.5 points compared to 2024) compared to the EU average of 76.1% (+0.3 points).
    However, the gender gap in employment remains wide, especially in Italy, with 58% of women in the workforce in Italy (71.3% in the EU) compared to 77.1% of men.
    The employment rate gap between men and women in 2025 is 19.1 points compared to the EU average of 9.6 points.
    Even looking at the central age group, those between 25 and 54, a period in which education has been completed and retirement is still a long way off, women in Italy are just 65% in the workforce (a sharp increase from 60.3% in 2019), with a gap compared to men (84.6% in the workforce) of nearly 20 points.
   
   

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