Turkey’s unemployment to fall to 9.5-10 pct by end of 2017 with new job campaign: Minister

ANKARA

Turkey’s unemployment rate will fall to single digit figures by the end of 2017 thanks to a number of plans to boost employment, Labor and Social Security Minister Mehmet Müezzinoğlu has claimed. 

“With the positive impact of employment boosting steps, the unemployment rate will regress to 9.5-10 percent by the end of 2017. Unless there is a big problem, Turkey will close the year with a single-digit rate,” Müezzinoğlu told private broadcaster A Haber, as quoted by Reuters on Feb. 16. 

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan recently launched an “employment mobilization” campaign to curb the negative trend in employment, and many companies and sector associations have responded by vowing to create thousands of new jobs. 

The government’s employment encouragement campaign, which will officially start in early March, aims to create 2 million new jobs, officials say. The package is estimated to cost 12.3 billion Turkish Liras ($3.2 billion), most of which will be met from the Employment Fund. 

Turkey’s unemployment rate rose to 12.1 percent in November 2016, marking the highest such rate since March 2010, official data showed on Feb. 15. 

The number of unemployed persons aged 15 years and above rose to 3.7 million in November 2016, 590,000 more than the same period of the previous year, pushing the unemployment rate to 12.1 percent with a 1.6 percentage point increase, according to Turkish Statistics Institute (TÜİK) data. 

The youth unemployment rate of people aged 15-24 was 22.6 percent, with a 3.5 percentage point increase, while the unemployment rate for people aged 15-64 was 12.3 percent, with a 1.6 percentage point increase.

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was also announced at 11.8 percent, marking a 0.1 percentage point increase.