Turkey's unemployment rate falls to 10.6 pct in Feb

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's unemployment rate stood at 10.6 percent in February, falling 2 percentage points on a yearly basis, the country's statistical authority said on Tuesday.

TurkStat said the number of unemployed persons aged 15 years and over -- 3.35 million last February -- decreased by 546,000, year-on-year.

"In the same period, non-agricultural unemployment rate occurred as 12.5 percent with 2.3 percentage point decrease," TurkStat said.

"While youth unemployment rate, including persons aged 15-24 was 19 percent with 4.3 percentage point decrease, the unemployment rate for persons aged 15-64 occurred as 10.5 percent with 2 percentage point decrease."

The number of employed people rose by some 1.2 million to nearly 28.2 million over the same period, moving the employment rate to 46.6 percent with a 1.3 percentage points annual increase, the institute added.