ROME, June 13 (Xinhua) -- Italy's labor input outpaced economic growth in the first quarter (Q1) of this year, the National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) revealed Monday.

       ISTAT reported in a statement that labor input increased by 1.5 percent compared to the previous quarter and 6.7 percent year-on-year. Both figures outpaced the growth of Italy's economy, which expanded by 0.1 percent quarter-on-quarter and 6.2 percent year-on-year.

       Labor input also outpaced the growth in the overall employment rate. Italy had 120,000 more jobs at the end of the first quarter of the year than it did in the fourth quarter of 2021, an increase of 0.5 percent, said ISTAT.

       Over the year ending on March 31, the Italian economy created 905,000 new jobs, an increase of 4.1 percent compared to the year-ago period.

       Labor input is a measure of the number of hours worked in a country. It is an important measure of a country's employment situation because, unlike traditional measures of employment, part-time and full-time workers are weighted differently in the calculations.