The Corriere della Sera gave good insight into on of the dark spots of the Italian economy, the very low % of employed. In fact only a bit over a third of the Italian population is - legally - employed. Even if we account for the "black" labour this is a very low level compared to other Eurozone countries. Germany for example has IIRC almost 1 in 2 employed, with only a slightly older population.

While the numbers of the unemployed generally captured the headlines this article, which is not available online, shows how much of the human potential of Italy has not been tapped. Especially the women are far less present in the labour market. (It is difficult to explain this due to the traditional wealth in children for which the mamma' had to care, as the fertility has been very low for many many years).

In short the relative low "unemployment" of Italy compared to a nation like Spain has to do with the specific circumstances of the country and the resulting black areas for the usual catchy statistics.

---

@Surferbeetle: I have recently sold quite a bit of stocks as the performance of many was just a bit too good, considering the current situation. It gives me enough liquidity to react to greater pessimism while the high % of stocks of my overall portfolio - not my portafoglio - should possibly continue to give high dividends and good long-term performance. Said that I have lost on paper almost 20% on the ETF on the European financial sector. Timing has been critical in this context, for example financial stock like Allianz have risen almost as much.