In the decades following the unification of Italy, the northern regions of the country, Lombardy, Piedmont and Liguria in particular, began a process of industrialization and economic development while the southern regions remained behind. The imbalance between North and South, which widened steadily in the first post-unification century, was reduced in the sixties and seventies also through the construction of public works, the implementation of agrarian and scholastic reforms, the expansion of industrialization and the improved living conditions of the population. This convergence process was interrupted, however, in the 1980s. To date, the per capita GDP of the South is just 58% of that of the Center-North, while the unemployment rate is more than double (6.7% in the North against 14.9% in the South).