Turkey: Unemployment stands at 14.7% in January

ISTANBUL

The unemployment rate in Turkey was 14.7% in January 2019, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) announced on Monday.

"The unemployment rate occurred as 14.7% with 3.9 percentage point increase," TurkStat said in a statement.

The number of jobless -- aged 15 and over -- in the country reached 4.67 million, up 1.26 million from January 2018.

The number of employed persons were 27.16 million people in the month, according to official figures.

The number of people employed fell 872,000 on a yearly basis, taking the employment rate to 44.5%, a 1.4 percentage point annual decline, TurkStat said.

"According to the distribution of employment by sector, 17.0% was employed in agriculture, 19.9% was in industry, 5.4% was in construction and 57.7% was in services," it said.

Climbing 387,000 year-on-year, Turkey's labour force totaled 31.8 million people as of January, while the labor force participation rate (LFPR) was 52.2%.

In the same month, the LFPR for males was 71.1, while it was 33.6% for females.

The institute also said the rate of unregistered employment -- people working without social security related to their principal occupation -- was 33.1% in January, rising 0.6 percentage points year-on-year.

Last year, the unemployment rate hovered between 9.6% and 13.5%. Over the past five years, the highest figure was seen in January this year, while the lowest was in May 2014 with 8.8%.

The institute will release its next report on the subject on May 15.

*Writing and contributions by Muhammed Ali Gurtas from Ankara