Number of young people in work in Italy has fallen by 2.4 mn in 19 years

National statistics agency Istat said Saturday that 5.3 million people aged 15 to 34 were in work in Italy in July 2023, a drop of around 2.4 million with respect to the same month in 2004, Azernews reports.

Earlier on Saturday Mestre's Cgia business association said in a report that Italy's declining birth rate was starting to cause problems for the nation's firms.

It said the overall number of people aged between 15 and 34 had dropped by almost one million in the last 10 years, making it difficult for many Italian businesses to recruit young workers.

This factor is on top of the long-standing problem that many of the young people who are available for work do not have the skills companies need.