The southern city of Naples received 112,572 applications for 534 public administration jobs such as traffic police officer and public accountant, Italian media reported on Tuesday.
“I’m going to take three tests: for an accountant post, for a traffic police post and for the book-keeping post. This competition is a boat I can’t miss,” 28-year-old Angelo Diana told Italian daily La Repubblica. Diana has a job, he works in his family’s business, but he decided to try out for the municipal jobs since the company “has more problems than profits.”
The 534 selected will be awarded a six-month trial contract and will then get an open-ended contract, which for many Italians remains the ultimate professional goal. “I come from Rome where I own a shop, but heading to work every day is painful because of the crisis. I would be ready to move to Naples for a steady salary at the end of the month,” said Fabio Caputo, 33.
Italy was able to keep unemployment under control until mid-2009 thanks to a temporary layoff scheme that allows companies to halt operations for months at a time if business is slow, with workers covered by public unemployment insurance. Over the past months however, the ranks of job-seekers have grown, rising to more than two million in October for the first time since 2004. Italy’s unemployment rate was of 8.5 percent in February, with 2.127 million looking for a job, of which almost 30 percent were aged between 15 and 24.
Italy’s unemployment rate is lower than that of the 16-nation eurozone, which hit a record 10 percent in February, the first time the measure was in double digits since the currency came into being in 1999.
Rome, May 18, 2010 (AFP)
