UPDATE - Turkey's unemployment rate stands at 14% in August

UPDATES WITH MORE DETAILS

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) – Turkey’s unemployment rate stood at 14.0% in August, the country's statistical authority announced on Friday.

The unemployment rate climbed 2.9 percentage points year-on-year, Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said.

The number of jobless people aged 15 and older was 4.65 million, up 980,000 from August 2018.

The youth unemployment rate -- the 15-24 age group -- also rose 6.6 points on an annual basis to 27.4% in the month.

TurkStat said non-agricultural unemployment rose 3.5 percentage points to 16.7% in the same period.

The unemployment for the 15-64 age group stood at 14.3% in August with a 2.9 percentage points rise compared to same month last year.

Data showed that August's employment rate fell 2 percentage point to 46.3%.

"The number of employed persons decreased 789,000 to 28.5 million persons in August 2019 compared with the same period of last year," TurkStat said.

Some 55.4% of total employment was in the services sector, 19.6% in agriculture, 19.5% in industry, and 5.5% in construction.

The labor force participation rate (LFPR) in Turkey slipped 0.4 percentage point year-on-year, standing at 53.9%.

"The LFPR for male was 73.2% with 0.9 percentage point decrease and the rate for female was 35% with 0.1 percentage point increase with the same period of last year," it added.