Turkey’s jobless rate rises to double digits for first time in 6 months

Turkey’s unemployment rate increased to double-digit figures in August for the first time since February, the Turkish Statistics Agency (TÜİK) revealed on Nov. 17.

The unemployment rate increased to 10.1 percent in August from 9.8 percent the previous month, in line with slowing economic growth figures.

The number of unemployed people aged 15 and over surged to 2.94 million, an increase of 77,000 from the previous month. The jobless rate was 8.9 percent for men and 12.7 percent for women. The youth unemployment rate was announced as 18.9 percent.

Meanwhile, Turkey’s economic growth slowed to 2.1 percent in the second quarter, down from 4.7 percent in the first quarter.

In 2013, the unemployment rate was 9 percent in August, while the country grew by 4 percent overall in 2014.

The non-agricultural unemployment rate, however, decreased from the previous month by 0.1 percent to 12.4 percent in August. The number of employed people in non-agricultural sectors increased to 20.46 million, according to the TÜİK data.

Some 22.1 percent of employed people work in the agricultural sector, 20 percent in the industrial sector, 7.5 percent in the construction sector and 50.5 percent in the services sector.