Turkey's unemployment rate drops to 11.7% in Q3

ISTANBUL

Turkey's unemployment rate stood at11.7% in the third quarter of 2021, down 0.4 percentage points from the previous quarter and 1.7 percentage points on an annually basis.

The number of unemployed people age 15 and over fell to 3.8 million this July-September, said a Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) statement on Tuesday.

The employment rate came in at 45.4% or 28.99 million people, up from 44.6% in the previous quarter and 42.6% in the same quarter last year.

"The seasonally adjusted labour force participation rate was 51.4% with 0.7 percentage point increase," the institute said.

The youth unemployment rate – age 15-24 – was 22.1%, down 1.1% quarter-on-quarter, and the youth employment rate was 32.4%, up 0.5 percentage points.

"The weekly average actual working hours of those at work increased by 0.6 hours compared to the previous quarter," to 44 hours, TurkStat said.