Turkey’s unemployment falls to 10.4 percent in December period

ANKARA – Anadolu Agency

Turkey’s unemployment rate stood at 10.4 percent in December 2017, falling 2.3 percentage points on a yearly basis, the country’s statistical authority said on March 15.

According to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK), the number of unemployed people aged 15 and over was 3.291 million last December, a fall of 581,000 year-on-year.

“The number of unemployed people aged 15-years-old and over decreased by 581,000 to 3.29 million people in the period of December 2017 in Turkey compared with the same period of the previous year,” TÜİK said in a statement.

In the same period, the non-agricultural unemployment rate was 12.3 percent, down 2.6 percentage points.

The seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate was 9.9 percent in the December period with 0.2 percentage point decrease, regressing to the lowest since March 2016.

After the release of the TÜİK data, the Turkish government reiterated its target of decreasing the unemployment rate to single digits

“Thanks to the new employment incentives, we aim to decrease the unemployment rate to single digits until this year ends,” Labor and Social Security Minister Jülide Sarıeroğlu said on March 15.

“Turkey’s employment agency plans to enable 1.25 million people to be employed over the course of this year,” Sarıeroğlu added in an interview with private broadcaster NTV.

The youth unemployment rate, covering the ages 15-24, was 19.2 percent, down 4.8 percentage points. The unemployment rate for the 15-64 age group was also down 2.3 percentage points to 10.6 percent in the December period, according to TÜİK data.

The number of people employed rose by nearly 1.619 million in the same period, bringing the employment rate to 46.9 percent, up 1.8 percentage points on an annual basis, TÜİK also stated.

TÜİK added that the labor force participation rate was 52.4 percent, up 0.8 percentage points over the same period in 2016.

The labor force participation rate for men was 71.7 percent, up 0.2 percentage points, and the rate for women was 33.5 percent, also up 1.3 percentage points compared with the same period of the previous year. 

Turkey’s unemployment rate hit 13 percent in the January period, its highest level in the last seven years.