Italy’s fashion industry leaders, who say the sector had sales worth EUR52.5 billion in 2008, have urged the government to safeguard jobs for some 700,000 small-company workers. The fashion industry comprises about 60,000 companies, of which about 90% are classified as small businesses, SMI said previously. In Italy, small companies aren’t eligible for subsidized government unemployment funds. Earlier Wednesday, the government said financial resources to help ailing small and medium-sized Italian companies had been raised to EUR1.5 billion from EUR1.3 billion. …
Date:3/19/2009
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