Employment in Italy is up to a record level but it is still below the OECD average by almost 10 percentage points, the Paris-based organization said Tuesday. The OECD also pointed to a marked gap for women's and young people's employment in Italy. "Thanks to particularly strong growth over the past two years, Italy's employment rate reached a record high of 62.8% in the first quarter of 2026, but remained 9.3 percentage points below the OECD average (72.1% in the first quarter of 2026), placing it among the lowest in the region," said the factsheet on Italy included in the OECD Employment Outlook 2026. "The gap compared to the OECD average," the international organization continues, "is particularly marked among women and young people." Furthermore, the organization warns, "over the past y