Stable jobless rate signals upward trend

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Employment in construction fell in October, a seasonal effect, says fresh data.

Employment in construction fell in October, a seasonal effect, says fresh data.

Turkey’s unemployment rate witnessed a slight increase from 8.8 percent in September to 9.1 percent in October, according to data released by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) yesterday.

On a year-on-year basis, unemployment for October 2011 registered a 2.1 point drop from 11.2 percent in December 2010. The number of unemployed for October was roughly 2.45 million, down from 2.9 million in October 2010. Similarly, the number of people employed was approximately 24.5 million, up from 22.9 million a year ago, according to TÜİK data.

“More importantly, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remained almost flat at 9.4 percent in October compared to 9.3 percent in September, remaining at historically low levels,” Özgür Altuğ, chief economist at BGC Partners, said in a note yesterday.

“Meanwhile, industrial sector employment has witnessed a steady decline since May, a Bahçeşehir University Economic Research Institute (BETAM) report said.

“The 56,000 [person] increase in employment in the service sector and the 40,000 [person] increase in agricultural employment have helped offset the decrease in employment in the industrial and construction sectors,” BETAM added.

TÜİK also released the Consumer Confidence Index for December 2011, registering a marginal increase from 91 in November to 92 in December.