Italy's Prime Minister Enrico Letta
Under pressure: Italy's Prime Minister Enrico Letta Reuters

Italy faced more troubling news as its unemployment rate hit a 37-year high of 12.7% in November, according to official figures.

The Italian National Institute of Statistics (Istat) also revealed youth unemployment (among those aged 15 to 24) hit its own devastating record high of 41.6% over the same period.

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The employment rate among women stood at 46.6% and 46.2% were inactive.

The overall jobless rate increased by 0.2% from 12.5% in October, according to Istat.

In November, there were 55,000 fewer people in work compared with the month before, and 448,000 less than in November 2012.

The figures are the latest bad news for the embattled country. Unemployment has been rising steadily since early 2011 as Italy languished in its longest post-war recession.

Italy Unemployment