Unemployment rises to 9.3 percent in April in Turkey

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

Turkey’s unemployment rate rose to 9.3 percent in April, marking a 0.3 percent increase compared to the same month a year earlier, the state-run statistics body TÜİK revealed yesterday.

The number of unemployed persons was around 2.6 million in April, representing an increase of 216,000 from the same month in 2012. The non-agricultural unemployment rate rose to 11.5 percent with a 0.4 percent increase and the youth unemployment rate reached 17.5 percent with a 0.8 percent increase. However, the overall employment rate increased from 45.2 percent to 46.4 percent in April from the same period of last year, with the number of employed persons increasing to 25.6 million. Agricultural employment increased by 47,000 persons and non-agricultural employment increased by around 1 million.

Of those who were employed in April, 23.6 percent were employed in agriculture, 19.6 percent were employed in industry, 7 percent were in construction and 49.9 percent were in services.

The labor force participation reached 51.1 percent, with a 1.5 percent increase compared to April 2012. It rose to 71.6 percent with a 1 percent increase for men, and 31.2 percent with 2 percent increase for women.