Turkish unemployment returns to double-digits after nine months

ANKARA

The unemployment rate in Turkey reached 10 percent in December 2013, as the number of jobless people became 2.8 million, TÜİK has announced. DAILY NEWS photo

Turkish joblessness returned to double-digits in December after nine months, official data showed yesterday.

The unemployment rate in Turkey reached 10 percent in December 2013, with a 0.1 percentage point increase from the previous month, according to Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) data that covers the three-month period between November 2013 and January 2014.

The number of unemployed people rose by almost 19,000 to reach over 2.8 million people nationwide.
The country´s unemployment rate was 9.9 percent in November 2013 while it was 10.1 percent in December of the previous year. The labor force participation rate (LFPR) for December 2013 stands at 50.1.

According to the TÜİK data, non-agricultural employment also decreased by 0.3 percentage points and became 12.1 percent.

Unemployment in Turkey had become above the government target of 9.5 percent and became 9.7 percent in 2013 as the labor growth outstripped the number of people employed.

As the number of unemployed people increased by 229,000 in 2013, the number of employed people also rose by 496,000 from the previous year to reach 25.2 million people in December 2013.

According to its medium-term program, the government foresees reaching the 9.4 percent
unemployment level in 2014, but the foreseen economic slowdown is expected to cause the government to miss its target this year as well.

The unemployment rate for 2014 is projected to rise to 10.5 percent before leveling off, according to the European Union Commission forecast.