Turkey’s unemployment rate rose to 12.3 percent in November 2018, the country’s statistics authority announced on Friday, the Hürriyet Daily News reported.
“The number of unemployed persons aged 15 and over increased by 706,000 to 3.98 million in the November 2018 period year on year. The unemployment rate was 12.3 percent with a 2 percentage point increase,” the Turkish Statistics Institute (TurkStat) said.
“In the same period, the non-agricultural unemployment rate was 14.3 percent with a 2.1 percentage point increase. While the youth unemployment rate, ages 15-24, was 23.6 percent with a 4.3 percentage point increase, the unemployment rate for persons aged 15-64 was 12.6 percent with a 2.1 percentage point increase,” it added.
Unregistered employment stood at 33.6 percent, according to TurkStat.
Meanwhile, public sector employment recorded an increase of 20.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2018 over the same period of the previous year. Total public sector employment was 4.35 million persons, according to data gathered by the Strategy and Budget Office.
The government aimed for an unemployment rate of 11.3 percent in 2018 and estimates 12.1 percent this year, 11.9 next year and 10.8 percent in 2021, under a new economic program announced in September 2018.
Last year, the lowest unemployment rate was observed in April with 9.6 percent.
Since November 2013, the highest unemployment rate was 13 percent in January 2017, while the lowest was in May 2014 with 8.8 percent.