Turkey: Unemployment rate falls to 10.3 percent

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's unemployment rate stood at 10.3 percent in November 2017, falling 1.8 percentage points on a yearly basis, the country's statistical authority said on Thursday.

TurkStat stated that the number of unemployed persons aged 15 years and over – 3.27 million last November -- decreased by 440,000 year-on-year.

"In the same period, non-agricultural unemployment rate occurred as 12.2 percent with 2.1 percentage points decrease," the institute said.

"While youth unemployment rate including persons aged 15-24 was 19.3 percent with 3.3 percentage points decrease, the unemployment rate for persons aged 15-64 occurred as 10.5 percent with 1.8 percentage points decrease," it added.

The number of employed people rose by nearly 1.5 million in the same period, moving the employment rate to 47.3 percent with a 1.5 percentage points annual increase, the statement noted

"According to the distribution of employment by sector; 18.6 percent was employed in agriculture, 19.2 percent was in industry, 7.6 percent was in construction and 54.6 percent was in service," TurkStat said.

The institute noted that the labour force participation rate (LFPR) was 52.8 percent with a 0.7 percentage points increase over the same period.

"LFPR for male was 72.1 percent with 0.2 percentage points increase and the rate for female was 33.8 percent with 1.1 percentage points increase compared with the same period of the previous year," it said.

The rate of unregistered employment realized as 33.6 percent with a 0.3 percentage points increase from the same month of the previous year, TurkStat added.