Turkey’s unemployment rate falls to 10.1% in March

Turkey’s unemployment rate falls to 10.1% in March
By bne IntelliNews June 18, 2018

Turkey's unemployment rate fell from 10.6% in February to 10.1% in March, national statistics institute TUIK announced on June 18.

The unemployment rate stood at 10.8% in January and was posted at 11.7% in March 2017.

The latest figures on joblessness are something of a plus for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his ruling AKP party as Turkey enters its last week of campaigning prior to the June 24 elections, but they do not cover the economic slowdown that analysts say has been apparent in the country since mid-April on the back of the severely devalued Turkish lira (TRY) and interest rate hikes that were brought in in response.

The latest figures also showed the non-agriculture unemployment rate declining from 12.5% in February to 11.9% in March while youth unemployment moved down from 19% to 17.7%.

The labour force participation rate edged up from 52.2% in February to 52.4% in March.

The number of unemployed people fell from 3.35mn in February to 3.21mn in March. The number of employed persons increased by 1mn from March 2017 to March 2018, a figure less than the 1.21mn in the one-year period from February 2017 to February 2018.

Turkey’s employment agency plans to enable 1.25mn people to become employed over the course of 2018, Labour and Social Security Minister Julide Sarieroglu said in March.

Turkey's unemployment rate did not budge in 2017, remaining at the same 10.9% rate recorded for the previous year.

 

 

Data

Dismiss