The number of people in work in Italy in the third quarter of 2007 was up 1.8% on the same period last year, according to Italy's national statistics institute Istat.
Between July and September some 23,417,000 people had jobs, Istat said, adding that 416,000 of these were newly hired. About half of the new hires were foreigners.
The number of employees in the central Italian regions increased by 4.1%, in northern Italy by 1.3% and in the south by 1.1%.
According to Istat, the Italian labour force climbed by 1.3% to 24,819,000 people in the third quarter.
Some 62.7% of people aged between 15 and 64 were working, while the employment rate stood at 59.1%, up 0.7% over the third quarter of 2006.
