By Xavier Fontdegloria

Italy's unemployment rate decreased slightly in September and employment levels remained steady, data from the country's statistics office Istat showed Friday.

The country's unemployment rate, which includes only active job-seekers, stood at 9.6% in September, down 0.1 percentage points from the 9.7% reading the prior month.

Istat said 6,000 jobs were created in September. However, the number of people working is still 330,000 below the figure registered in February, before the pandemic hit the country and lockdown measures were imposed.

Italy's economy grew by a sharp 16.1% during the third quarter compared to the previous one, outpacing expectations, after contracting by 13% from April to June. Despite the strong rebound, Italy's third-quarter GDP was still 4.7% below the level recorded a year earlier, data from Istat showed.

Write to Xavier Fontdegloria at xavier.fontdegloria@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

10-30-20 0547ET