Italy Unemployment Hits New High as EU Urges 'Fight'

European Union President Herman Van Rompuy urged an "immediate fight" against unemployment during a visit to Rome on Friday, as Italy's jobless rate hit a record with little sign of any let-up soon.

"It is a challenge that we need to meet as a matter of urgency," Van Rompuy said after talks with Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta who has pushed for youth unemployment to be top of the agenda at an EU summit in Brussels next month.

Van Rompuy said there were more than seven million young people in the European Union at the moment who were not working, studying or training.

His comments came as new data in Italy, the eurozone's third largest economy, showed the unemployment rate in April had risen to 12 percent.

Youth unemployment was at 40.5 percent, with an estimated 656,000 young Italians looking for a job.

"We have to deal with the social crisis," Italian President Giorgio Napolitano said in a statement, calling for the issue to be put "at the center of political action" by Letta's coalition cabinet.

"Public resources should be aimed concretely at launching a new phase of development and social cohesion," said Napolitano, who has mostly ceremonial powers but is a key reference point for many Italians feeling the pain of austerity.

The overall rate was 0.1 percentage points higher than in March and 1.5 points more than April 2012.

The number of job seekers rose to 3.83 million in April -- 23,000 or 7.0 percent more than in March.

Business daily Il Sole 24 Ore said the data showed there was an "employment emergency" in the country.

It also pointed to regional differences in the figures, with the unemployment rate in less developed southern Italy reaching 20.1 percent.

The figures came a day after France, the eurozone's second economy, said the number of job seekers had risen to a record 3.26 million.

Bank of Italy governor Ignazio Visco meanwhile warned that a turn for the better could not be expected until the end of the year at best.

"This year will see a major shrinkage of productive activity and employment," Visco said in a speech at the annual central bank assembly.

"An inversion in the economy cycle is possible towards the end of the year," he said.

"The recession is impacting profoundly on production potential and risks affecting social cohesion," he said.

Visco pointed out that Italy's gross domestic product last year was 7.0 percent lower than in 2007, while household income had fallen by 9.0 percent and industrial production had shrunk by a quarter over the same period.

"In Italy, more than other countries, the cyclical evolutions come on top of serious structural weaknesses," the governor said.

"We have not been able to respond to the extraordinary geopolitical, technological and demographic changes of the past 25 years," he said.

Italy is forecasting GDP will shrink by 1.3 percent this year and grow by 1.3 percent in 2014.

Italy has been stuck in recession since the summer of 2011 -- its second since the global financial and economic crisis of 2008-2009.