Turkish unemployment rate rises to 10.7 percent in July

ANKARA

Turkey’s quarterly jobless average increased to 10.7 percent in July from the previous 10.2 percent, data from the Turkish Statistics Institute (TÜİK) showed on Oct. 17. 

In the same period, the non-agricultural unemployment rate was 13 percent, representing a one-point increase year on year.
 
While the youth unemployment rate, which includes persons aged 15-24, was 19.8 percent – a 1.5-point increase – the unemployment rate for persons aged 15-64 was 11 percent – a one-point increase – the data showed. 

The number of unemployed persons aged 15 years old and above totaled approximately 3.3 million in July.

The number of employed persons was roughly 27.6 million persons amid a year-on-year rise of about 294,000 people.

The employment rate totaled 47 percent, 0.2 percent less than July 2015, the official data showed. 

According to the distribution of employment by sector, 20.7 percent were employed in agriculture, 19 percent in industry, 7.4 percent in construction and 52.9 percent in services. Employment in agriculture decreased 1.3 percentage points, while industry decreased 0.5 percentage points in July compared to the same period in 2015. 

The share of construction registered no change, although services increased by 1.8 percentage points.

The number of seasonally adjusted unemployed persons was announced as 3.4 million, an increase of around 73,000 persons in July compared to the same month in 2015. 

This seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 11.2 percent, representing a 0.2-point increase over the same period, according to TÜİK’s data.