Europe crisis hits Italy manufacturing

Economic crisis in Europe has put a negative impact on Italy’s manufacturing capacity, forcing companies in the recession-ravaged country to cut thousands of jobs.

According to the figures recently released by Italy’s leading industrial association Confindustria, economic downturn has destroyed 15 percent of the country’s manufacturing capacity.
During 2009-2012, economic problems led to the closure of some 55,000 manufacturing companies in the country and the loss of some 539,000 Italian manufacturing jobs.
Last week, the head of Confindustria, Giorgio Squinzi, warned over the issue, saying “This is a problem that has to be tackled, because once (businesses are) closed, there is no re-opening.”
This is while Italy’s unemployment rate reached its highest level in at least 36 years.
The Rome-based national statistics office, Istat, said last month that the jobless rate for people between the age of 15 and 24 rose to 40.5 percent in April, the highest since the institute started collecting data on Italy in 1977.
Italians have been staging protests against high unemployment, economic adversity, and hardship over a series of government-imposed austerity packages in the recent past.