Italian youth unemployment broke a new record today, hitting the eye-watering level of 44.2% in June's figures.

That's despite the fact the eurozone is clearly now recovering (slowly) from years of recession and stagnation.

Only two European countries have higher youth unemployment than Italy. Greece's rate is 53.2% and Spain's is 49.2%.

Italian unemployment overall is higher than eurozone unemployment, at 12.7% — the figure for the whole bloc is 11.1%, Business Insider reported.

The eurozone's youth unemployment, at 22.5%, is about twice as high as the overall level.

In Italy's case it's nearly 3.5 times higher than the headline rate, suggesting a pretty brutal future for the country's young people — and that something is seriously wrong with the labour market.