Unemployment rate in Turkey at lowest level of eight months, according to official figures

People queued in front of a Turkish Employment Agency office in Elazığ. (Photo: Neriman Akbaş/Kanal23)

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The Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) has released the unemployment figures for February. Accordingly, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 10.7 percent in that month.

The number of unemployed persons decreased by 178,000 in a month to 3,57 million. The unemployment rate was 9.3 percent among men and 13.4 percent among women.

While the unemployment rate is at its lowest level of the last eight months, the broad unemployment rate is still above 20 percent.

Employment rate

The number of employed persons increased by 90,000 to 30,006 million and the employment rate remained the same at 46.6 percent, according to TurkStat.

The employment rate was 64 percent for men and 29.6 percent for women.

The labor force decreased by 87,000 people to 33.85 million and the labor force participation rate dropped by 0.2 percentage points to 52.2 percent in February.

The labor force participation rate was 70.6 percent among men and 34.2 percent among women.

Youth unemployment

The unemployment rate in the 15-24 age group was 20.7 percent, down by 0.6 percentage points. The Unemployment rate in this age group was 17.7 percent in men and 26.5 percent in women.

Working time

The average weekly actual working time, adjusted for seasonal and calendar effects,  increased by 0.3 hours compared to the previous month and became 45.6 hours in February.

The broad unemployment rate, termed "idle workforce" by the TurkStat, was 21.8 percent in February, down by 0.9 percentage points from the previous months. (HA/VK)