Turkey’s unemployment rate 10.6 pct in September
ANKARA
The unemployment rate in Turkey decreased 0.7 percentage points to 10.6 percent in September, compared to the same month last year, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) announced on Dec. 15.
The number of unemployed people aged 15 and above in the country went down to 3.4 million this September, a decrease of 104,000 from September last year, when the unemployment rate stood at 11.3 percent, the statement said.
The rate was the same in August, according to TÜİK.
The fall came after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called on businesses to create more jobs at an Employment Council gathering in Ankara on Dec. 14.
Turkey’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 11.1 percent in the three months preceding Sept. 30 compared to the same period last year, exceeding expectations of most economists.
September’s employment rate was up 1.1 points to 47.9 percent compared to the same period last year.
The labor force participation rate was also up by 0.8 points year-on-year, reaching 53.6 percent.
The number of women participating in the workforce increased one percent from the previous year to 34.5 percent.
“Youth unemployment remains at 20 percent. We have seen some reduction in seasonally adjusted indicators, though more must be on its way given the GDP growth figures,” said KapitalFX Analyst Enver Erkan.
Erkan noted that the government expected a 10.8 percent unemployment rate for this year and 10.5 percent for 2018.
“This means a single digit rate is not on the cards yet,” he added.
Muammer Komürcüoğlu, an economist at İş Investment, also stressed the limited effect a rise in labor force participation rates would have on unemployment rates despite Turkey’s strong third-quarter growth.
The bad news is that the manufacturing sector has created relatively few new jobs, state-run Anadolu Agency quoted him as saying.
Kömürcüoğlu also said a moderate fall in unemployment levels was expected for the rest of the year. “But we are still far away from a strong fall in the unemployment rate,” he added.
Separately, the government ran a budget surplus of 8.5 billion Turkish Liras ($2.2 billion) in November, but a 26.5 billion-lira ($6.58 billion) deficit in the first 11 months of 2017, the Finance Ministry announced on Dec. 15.
According to the ministry, tax revenues rose 16.7 percent during the first 11 months to 489.3 billion liras ($126.5 billion).
In November, budget revenues reached 65.2 billion liras ($16.8 billion), a seven percent rise compared to the same period last year, while budget expenditures climbed 11.8 percent to 56.7 billion liras ($14.6 billion).
The government is aiming for a budget deficit of 46.8 billion liras (nearly $12.8 billion) at the end of the year, according to the ministry.
