Turkey's unemployment rate down to 13.2% in May

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) - Turkey's unemployment rate was 13.2% in May, decreasing 0.6 percentage points from the previous month, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) on Monday.

The rate was also down by 0.3 percentage points versus the same month last year, TurkStat said in a statement.

The number of unemployed aged 15 and over decreased by 265,000 month-on-month to 4.24 million in May.

The employment rate slipped 0.4 percentage points to 43.8%, or 27.84 million people during the same period.

The labor force participation rate stood at 50.5% this May, decreasing 0.8 percentage points from April.

Some 32.08 million people made up the labor force, with a 481,000-person decrease in May 2021 compared to the previous month, it said.