In February 2024, the social hardship index calculated by Confcommercio (Misery index) stood at 12.8 (-0.3 points compared to January), the lowest level since August 2009. The association underlines that the slowdown was driven by the progressive decline in inflation for goods and services with high purchasing frequency (2.8% from 3.5% in the previous month).
Extended unemployment marked a slight increase (8.5% compared to 8.3% in the previous month). The slight growth in unemployment, in a situation of increasing employment, is a possible sign of greater participation in the labor market of the discouraged.
The February 2024 index, reports Confcommercio, stood at 12.8, a reduction of three tenths of a point compared to January, the lowest figure, net of what happened in the first months of the pandemic, since August 2009. The reduction recorded in the last month is the synthesis of a
further slowdown in inflation for goods and services with high purchasing frequency and a moderate increase in widespread unemployment.
The continuous survey on the labor force recorded, in February, an increase of 41 thousand employed compared to the previous month and an increase of 46 thousand people looking for work. These trends were associated, after a quarter of growth, with a reduction in inactive people (-65 thousand per month, mainly concentrated among men). These dynamics have led to a growth in the official unemployment rate, which rose to 7.5%.
In the same month, the authorized hours of redundancy payments were just under 45.6 million, to which must be added just under 911 thousand hours for allowances paid by solidarity funds. There was an increase in the extended unemployment rate, which rose to 8.5%. This
increase could be linked to the growth in participation in the labor market given the simultaneous increase in employment.
"The moderate growth in unemployment, we read, must be evaluated with caution. The data is a synthesis of complex phenomena: on the one hand the increase in people actively searching for a job, in a context of prolonged growth in employment, it could be a symptom of the return to the market of some of the discouraged, on the other the greater use of forms of salary integration, among those who are already employed, could be a sign of the uncertainty and fragility that characterize the current economic phase ".
In February 2024, the prices of high-frequency goods and services showed an annual variation of 2.8%, down seven tenths of a point compared to January. The downward trend also continued in March: according to initial estimates, the change in prices of goods and services with high purchasing frequency would stand at 2.7%.
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