Turkey: Unemployment rate drops to 9.6 pct in April

ANKARA

 The unemployment rate in Turkey declined to 9.6 percent in April from 10.6 percent in May, the Turkish Statistical Institute reported on Wednesday.

The rate of employment was at 46.2 percent in April, with the number of employed persons at 26.6 million.

"Turkish industrial production has been increasing, helped by the rise in German output that is the major market for this country's intermediate goods," commented Bora Tamer Yilmiz, an economist with Ziraat Securities in Istanbul, who added: "This is helping job creation in the country."

Turkey's Labor Force Participation rate was at 51 percent with 29.5 million people in the workforce.

The participation rate for males was 71.2, a 0.1 percentage point increase from the same month in the previous year.

The number of women in the workforce increased sharply in April, to 31.4 percent, an 0.7 percentage point increase from April 2014.

Employment in services increased by 1.2 percentage points, while that of agriculture decreased by 0.6 percentage points, industry decreased by 0.5 percentage points and construction decreased by 0.1 percentage points compared with the same period of the previous year.

Although Turkey’s unemployment rate is forecast to rise to 11.4 percent in 2015, according to the IMF’s latest World Economic Outlook report, the economy may be growing faster than was forecast.