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ROME—Italy's new government took its first concrete steps Friday, announcing some €3 billion ($3.86 billion) in economic measures aimed at offering relief to households and workers amid the country's longest postwar recession. Prime Minister Enrico Letta, who was sworn in last month as head of a coalition cabinet, said an unpopular tax on primary residences would be suspended and an extra €1 billion would be pumped into a wage-supplement program.  The measures were the bare minimum of what the new government has pledged. Notably, none of the announced benefits address what politicians have identified as the national priority: youth unemployment. Still, they signal a breakthrough of sorts given the stark political differences among the politicians that make up the patchwork majority behind Italy's first bipartisan government in more than 60 years.  Mr. Letta and his deputy, Angelino Alfano representing the mainstream left and right parties respectively—were upbeat about the day's cabinet meeting, where ministers managed to avoid the squabbles that have characterized recent meetings.  "We scored a goal on our first try," said Mr. Alfano, whose conservative People of Freedom party had demanded that the new property tax—introduced by former Prime Minister Mario Monti be scrapped. Mr. Letta, however, emphasized that only the summer installment of the tax on primary residences is being suspended. That is because the government intends this summer to overhaul the way Italy's tax code impacts real estate overall. Rome draws €44 billion in revenue from taxes, tariffs and other levies related to private property. About half of that is linked to ownership and the rest to service charges. The planned reform will "help households and the construction sector," the prime minister said, adding that businesses would be offered tax credits and breaks on properties they owned as part of production processes.  The decision to lower a tax on property is popular, because of Italy's high home-ownership rates. But it also reduces the government's room to maneuver on another important issue: lowering income and business taxes. Italian income taxes are unusually high even by European standards and hobble competitiveness and output, said Timo del Carpio, an economist at RBC Capital Markets in London.  The property tax was an efficient tool to spread out Italy's painful fiscal adjustment amid the euro-zone debt crisis, said Mr. Carpio. The decision to undo it shows that Mr. Letta's "fragile coalition is already proving to be an obstacle" toward that goal, he said.  While Mr. Alfano's party demanded the property tax cut, supporters of Mr. Letta's center-left Democratic Party wanted more money for a welfare program that has come under strain amid the economic downturn. The measure announced on Friday will provide new money for furlough schemes, helping companies keep their workforces intact. However, because those on furlough aren't part of the hoards of jobless people in Italy, the new measures do little to help tackle the country's 11.5% unemployment.  Mr. Letta is also working on a plan to offer tax breaks for new hiring but no final decisions have been taken, in part because the program is likely to prove far more costly than the measures announced Friday.   In an important shift from the past two years of Italy's economic policy, the latest measures will be "100% funded by public spending cuts and not by shifting the tax burden somewhere else," Mr. Alfano said. He didn't give details.  As things stand, Rome has little margin in making its future moves. Mr. Letta reiterated his intention to keep this year's budget deficit below 3.0% of gross domestic product, in accordance with European Union rules. That should allow Italy to be released from European strictures on countries with excessive deficits—an outcome cabinet officials expect will provide further fiscal relief by lowering sovereign borrowing costs.   "These are just our first steps," Mr. Letta said.