Turkey’s unemployment rate in June remained steady year-on-year at 10.2 percent but had edged up from 9.7 percent in May, the Turkish Statistics Institute (TurkStat) announced on Monday, according to Daily Sabah.
The number of unemployed aged 15 and over increased by 64,000 to 3.3 million in June 2018 compared to the same month the previous year.
In the same period, non-agricultural unemployment stood at 12.1 percent with a 0.1 percentage point decrease. The youth unemployment rate including persons aged 15-24 was 19.4 percent with a 1.2 percentage point decrease, and the unemployment rate for persons aged 15-64 held at 10.4 percent without any change.
The number of employed rose by 611,000 to 29.3 million, whereas the employment rate was 48.4 percent with a 0.4 percentage point increase. Employment in agriculture decreased by 0.9 percentage points.
“According to the distribution of employment by sector, 19.2 percent were employed in agriculture, 19.6 percent were in industry, 7.2 percent in construction and 54 percent were in services,” it said.
The labor force participation rate (LFPR) was 53.8 percent, a 0.4 percentage point annual rise, while the number of people in the labor force totaled nearly 32.6 million — rising some 675,000.
The LFPR for males was 73.4 percent, up 0.4 percentage points annually, and for females 34.6 percent, rising 0.5 percentage points over the same period.
Official figures also showed that the rate of unregistered employment — people working without social security related to their principal occupation — was 34 percent in June, falling 0.7 percentage points year-on-year.
The institute will release its next report on Oct. 15.
Last year, the lowest unemployment rate was seen in May and June with 10.2 percent. Over the past five years, the highest unemployment rate was 13 percent in January 2017, while the lowest was in June 2013 with 8.1 percent.