Turkey's unemployment rises to 11.8 pct in October

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's unemployment rate saw a 1.3 percentage points increase in October 2016 compared to the same month in 2015, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) announced on Monday.

The number of unemployed persons aged 15 and over rose to 3.65 million in October 2016, 500,000 more than a year earlier, pushing the unemployment rate to 11.8 percent, according to the state body.

On a monthly basis, unemployment was 0.5 percentage points higher compared to the previous month -- 11.3 percent in September 2016.

Though unemployment rose, the Turkish economy added 500,000 jobs in October compared to a year earlier.

Turkey’s labor force participation rose 0.8 percentage points in the month year-on-year to 52.4 percent, with the number of people in the labor force totaling 30.91 million. This was a rise of 911,000 in 2016 compared with the same period the previous year.

The number of women participating in the workforce rose 1.3 percentage points from the previous year to 33.1 percent, the report showed. The same rate for men was 0.2 percentage points higher in the same period, suggesting overall growth of the labor force participation rate was driven by women.