Italy's jobless rate rises, one third of youth seeking job

Italy's unemployment rate rose slightly in September as uncertain economic prospects discouraged hiring by companies, data published on Monday showed. The jobless rate rose to 8.3 percent in September from 8 percent in August and the rate among youth - defined as people between 15 and 24 years of age - increased 1.3 percentage point to 29.3 percent, according to the data published by national statistics agency Istat. Meanwhile, unemployment for the 17 eurozone countries rose to 10.2 percent in September from 10.1 in August, according to a report released Monday by European Union's statistics office in Luxembourg. Joblessness for the 27 members of the EU was 9.7 percent last month. The value of Italy's economic output rose 0.3 percent in the second quarter from the three months through March, when it increased 0.1 percent. The slow growth has recently prompted the three major ratings agencies to downgrade Italy's ability to pay off its 1.9 trillion debts. The number of unemployed totaled 2.08 million in September, 3.8 percent higher than in August and 3.5 percent more than the same month in 2010, Istat said in a report.