Italian Premier Renzi Moving in Right Direction, Adecco CEO Says

Sept. 25 (Bloomberg) — Italian Premier Matteo Renzi’s planned economic overhaul is a good first step to bolstering job creation, said Patrick de Maeseneire, chief executive officer of temporary-employment company, Adecco SA.

“It’s going in the right direction,” de Maeseneire said in an interview today in Rome. “I think it’s a signal to the political environment that reforms are absolutely needed here in order to get people back to work.”

Renzi said yesterday that new labor legislation remains his top priority in spite of opposition from unions and members of his own political party. Italy’s unemployment rate was 12.5 in the second quarter, with youth unemployment above 40 percent.

Adecco’s business in Italy grew 18 percent in the second quarter and continued “to hold up” in the first two months of the third quarter, de Maeseneire said.

“If we look at Europe, where we see some hesitation in Germany and France,” he said. “France didn’t do any reforms and because of that is not picking up.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Alessandra Migliaccio in Rome at [e-mail]; Flavia Rotondi in Rome at [e-mail] To contact the editors responsible for this story: Vidya Root at [e-mail] Jerrold Colten