One of 5 young Turks unemployed in September

ANKARA

Turkey’s youth unemployment rate, including persons aged 15-24, was 19.9 percent with a 1.4 percentage point increase in September, showing that one in five young people were unemployed. The unemployment rate for people aged 15-64 was 11.6 percent with a 1.1 percentage point increase, official data showed on Dec. 15.

Unemployment rose by 1 percentage point in September compared to the same month last year, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) announced.The number of unemployed people aged 15 and over rose to 3.52 million in the September period, which covered August, September and October, with a 420,000 increase from a year earlier, pushing the unemployment rate to 11.3 percent, according to TÜİK. The country’s non-agricultural unemployment rate was announced 13.7 percent with a 1.3 percentage point increase. On a monthly basis, the unemployment rate was flat compared to the previous month.        

Although unemployment rose, the Turkish economy added 408,000 jobs in September compared to a year earlier, hitting 27.5 million people. 

The employment rate was announced at 46.8 percent, the same as the previous figure. According to the distribution by sector, 20.5 percent were employed in agriculture, 19.1 percent were in industry, 7.7 percent were in construction and 52.7 percent were in services, according to TÜİK data.