Turkey: Unemployment rises to 11.3 pct in September

By Fatih Erkan Dogan

ANKARA

Unemployment inched up one percentage point in September compared to the same month last year, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) announced Thursday.

The number of unemployed persons aged 15 and over rose to 3.52 million in September 2016 -- 420,000 more than a year earlier, pushing Turkey’s unemployment rate to 11.3 percent.

On a monthly basis, unemployment was flat compared to the previous month.

Though unemployment rose, the Turkish economy added 408,000 jobs in September compared to a year earlier.

Thursday’s report revealed a break in the pattern of monthly rises in unemployment, which had gone up for four months in a row.

September’s employment rate was 46.8 percent, flat compared to the same period of last year. The 408,000 jobs created suggested that growth in the number of people seeking employment outpaced job creation as Turkey’s youthful population matures to working age.

Turkey’s labor force participation rate surged by 0.7 percent in September year-on-year to 52.8 percent, with the number of people in the labor force totaling 31.1 million, a rise of 828,000 in 2016 compared with the same period the previous year.

The number of women participating in the workforce rose by 1.2 percent compared to the previous year and the rate now stood at 33.5 percent, the report revealed.

For men the rate was unchanged, suggesting the overall growth in the labor force participation rate had been driven by women.