Employment among Italian women lags behind their male counterparts and remains at the bottom of the EU rankings, underscoring the challenges facing the country’s first female manager.
The employment rate for men rose 1.7 percentage points for the year to 69.5 percent in October, but rose more slowly for women, by 1.4 percentage points to 51.4 percent.
“The lack of family-friendly policies, low career expectations, subdued growth and high wage differentials weigh heavily on women’s labor force participation,” said Nicola Nobile, economist at consultancy Oxford Economics.
He added that reforms could have a significant impact on long-term growth. Italy’s economic output has largely stagnated for more than two decades.
The unemployment figures published on Thursday nevertheless surprised investors. The rate in the euro zone’s third-largest economy extended its decline to 7.8 percent in October from 7.9 percent in the previous month, the Office for National Statistics said on Thursday. Economists had forecast an increase to 8 percent.
Italy’s female employment rate is the lowest of any other EU country and is more than 20 percentage points lower than Germany’s. An even larger gap has opened up against the rates in the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark. It is the lowest of any other advanced economy.
The gap between male and female labor force participation is about double the euro area average.
Right-wing Giorgia Meloni took office in October, but has not sparked hopes of a change of direction.
Carlo Bonomi, the head of the Confederation of Italian Industry, has criticized the annual state budget for a lack of “vision”, including additional measures to encourage female labor force participation.
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