Turkish unemployment drops to 9.9 percent: official survey

ANKARA - Agence France- Presse

Hürriyet photo

Turkish unemployment declined to 9.9 percent of the workforce in the three months from February to April, from 10.8 percent in the same period in 2011, official data showed on Friday.
 
The number of unemployed people fell by 201,000 to reach 2.615 million on a 12-month comparison, the statistics institute said on the basis of a survey of 97,121 people.
 
Turkey's economy staged a spectacular recovery from the global crisis, growing by 8.9 percent in 2010 and by 8.5 percent in 2011.

This year however, Ankara expects four-percent growth, indicating a sharp slowdown owing to the effects of the eurozone debt crisis.
 
Unemployment remains a major challenge for the government in a country where many young people enter the workforce each year.
 
Turkey's jobless rate is determined through household surveys across the country which are then used to make a nationwide three-month projection.
 
But experts say the figures do not reflect the overall picture because of widespread undeclared or hidden unemployment, or the employment of educated, qualified people in menial jobs.