Turkey's unemployment rate at over 10 percent in May

By Tuba Sahin and Dilara Zengin

ANKARA (AA) - The unemployment rate in Turkey rose by 0.8 points to reach 10.2 percent in May compared with the same month last year, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) Tuesday.

The number of jobless people aged 15 and above in the country jumped to 3.2 million in the month, marking an increase of 330,000 from the same month last year, TurkStat said in a statement.

However, May’s figures showed a 0.3 percentage drop from the previous month, when unemployment stood at 10.5 percent.

On a monthly basis, Turkey's unemployment figure showed a steady decrease during five consecutive months of 2017.

The unemployment rate started the year with 13 percent in January, which dropped to 12.6 percent in February, 11.7 percent in March and 10.5 percent in April.

May's employment rate slightly increased by 0.2 percentage point to 47.7 percent compared with same period last year.

Labor force participation advanced by 0.5 percentage point year-on-year to 53 percent in the month.

The TurkStat report revealed that the number of women in the workforce rose by 1 percentage points from the previous year to 33.9 percent.