Some 55% of post-COVID new hires have been in the poorer south of Italy, Italy's labour consultants' study foundation said Saturday, Azernews reports, citing ANSA.

"The South has reared its head again, following the Covid-19 pandemic: out of 474,000 new workers, between the first quarter of 2019 and the same period of 2023, in fact, 262,000 (55.3% of the total), reside in the South", said the report.

And the employment growth rate in the South, in this historical phase, "was 4.4%, more than double, compared to the rest of the country".