Jobless rate remains in double digits in January

ISTANBUL

Hürriyet Photo

The unemployment rate in Turkey rose 0.4 percentage points year-on-year to 10.6 percent in the first month of the year, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) has said.

The jobless rate rose at a higher rate in rural areas – increasing by 1 point and reaching 7.5 percent in January – while urban unemployment posted a close-to-zero rise by 0.1 points and reached 12.1 percent, the country’s official statistics agency said.

The number of unemployed persons in Turkey reached 2.9 million people in January.

However the employment rate increased from 43.2 percent to 44.3 percent with a 1.1 percentage point increase compared to the same period in the previous year.

The rate surged by 958,000 people and the total number of employed people became 24.4 million as both agricultural and nonagricultural employment rose.

Of those who were employed in January 2013, 22.4 percent were employed in agriculture, 19.9 percent were employed in industry, 6.3 percent were employed in construction and 51.4 percent were employed in services.