Turkey’s jobless rate rises to 9.6 pct in June period

ANKARA

Turkey’s unemployment rate rose to 9.6 percent in the June period, which includes May, June and July, up 0.5 percent year-on-year and 0.2 percent over May, according to data released by the Turkish Statistics Institute (TÜİK) on Sept. 15.

The seasonally adjusted jobless rate came in at 10.4 percent in June, up slightly from 10.2 percent a month ago.

The non-farm unemployment rate rose to 11.7 percent from 11.2 percent a year earlier.

The youth unemployment rate for people in the 15-24 age bracket rose to 17.7 percent, a 1 percentage point increase from the same period of 2014. 

The rate of labor force participation increased to 52.1 percent, with 30.14 million people in work, up 901,000 from June 2014 and up from 29.86 million people in work in May of the year.

There was, however, no significant sign of improvement in employment despite a package of government measures to boost jobs in April and better-than-expected first-half growth, İş Investment economist Muammer Kömürcüoğlu told Reuters.

“We think the upward trend in the unemployment rate will accelerate given the expectation of a loss in the momentum of economic activity in the second half,” he said in a note, as quoted by Reuters. 

Turkish gross domestic product grew a greater-than-expected 3.8 percent in the second quarter, data showed last week, but full-year growth is seen around 3 percent, well below a government target of 4 percent, according to analysts. 

Of those who were employed in this period, 22 percent were employed in agriculture, 19.7 percent were employed in industry, 7.3 percent were employed in construction and 51 percent were employed in services, according to the TÜİK data.