Private companies in Italy hired a record 559,000 people in the first four months of the year, the national pensions and social-security fund INPS said on Friday.
The 559,000 new hirings in January-April this year compared with 390,000 over the same period of 2106 and 499,000 in the first four months of 2015, INPS said.
The rise was driven by an 24 percent increase in temporary contracts and a 30 percent rise in apprenticeships, INPS said.
The head of Italy's UIL trade union, Guglielmo Loy said the INPS data showed "a slow increase in employment that results from profound contradictions".
"One one hand there are healthy companies that are hiring, but with caution, as is shown by the static number of permanent hirings and the figures on temporary hirings," Loy said.
"On the other hand, we have an almost Dawinian struggle for survival in parts of industry with a surge in May in the number of temporary layoffs," Loy noted.
Italy’s unemployment rate fell in April to 11.1 percent - a bigger than expected fall and an almost 5-year low, pointing to improved growth prospects for the rest of this year.
Joblessness for 15-to-24-year-olds remained at 34 percent in April, the same as the revised figure for March and the lowest since February 2012.
Italy’s economic output expanded by 0.2 percent in the first quarter, the same pace as in the final three months of last year.
But employers association Confindustria said in a report last week that GDP may post a bigger rise in the current quarter.
The International Monetary Fund on Monday increased its 2017 growth forecast for Italy to 1.3 percent from the previously more modest 0.8 percent.
The Italian government has forecast GDP to rise 1.1 percent this year and by 1 percent in 2018.
Italy's economic growth remains among the weakest in the European Union, the IMF said.
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