Turkey’s unemployment rate dropped from 9.6% in April to 9.3% in May, data of the statistics office TUIK showed on August 17. The jobless rate was 8.8% in May 2014.
TUIK calculates the number of unemployed at 2.79mn people in May, while it says the non-farm jobless rate was 11.4% in the month, down from 11.6% in May. The non-farm unemployment rate stood at 10.7% in May 2014.
The seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate, on the contrary, rose from 9.9% to 10.2% in May.
The labour force participation rate improved from 51.1% in April to 51.7% in May and up from 51.2% a year ago. TUIK also said that 51.5% of the employed worked in the services sector in May, 21.3% in the agriculture, 20% in the industry and 7.2% in the construction sectors. The economy created 534,000 jobs over the past year.
The government forecasts the unemployment rate to be 9.5% in 2015 as it expects GDP growth to pick up from 2.9% in 2014 to 4% in 2015. Real GDP growth will hover around 3% over the medium term, unemployment could continue rising, leading to social pressures, said S&P on July 29 in its 2015 Global Credit Outlook for Banks.
| Turkey's Labour Market | ||||||||
| Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Jan-15 | Feb-15 | Mar | May | |
| Labour force participation rate (%) | 51.2 | 51.1 | 51.0 | 50.5 | 50.0 | 50.1 | 50.4 | 51.7 |
| Unemployed (mn) | 2.94 | 3.06 | 3.04 | 3.10 | 3.26 | 3.23 | 3.07 | 2.79 |
| Unemployment Rate (%) | 10.1 | 10.5 | 10.4 | 10.7 | 11.3 | 11.2 | 10.6 | 9.3 |
| Non-Farm Unemployment Rate (%) | 12.3 | 12.7 | 12.5 | 12.7 | 13.4 | 13.2 | 12.6 | 11.4 |
| Seasonally-adjusted Unemployment Rate (%) | 10.4 | 10.6 | 10.6 | 10.6 | 10.2 | 10.2 | 10.1 | 10.2 |
| Seasonally-adjusted Non-Farm Unemployment Rate (%) | 12.4 | 12.7 | 12.6 | 12.7 | 12.3 | 12.2 | 12.1 | 12.3 |
| Source: statistics institute | ||||||||
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