Turkey’s unemployment rate fell to 9.6 percent in April, dropping 0.9 percentage points year-on-year, the Hürriyet Daily News reported on Monday, citing the Turkish Statistics Institute (TurkStat).
The unemployment rate was 10.1 percent in March.
The new figures mark the first time since May 2016 that the country’s unemployment rate has dropped to single digits.
Over the past five years the highest unemployment rate was 13 percent, in January 2017, while the lowest was seen in June 2013 at 8.1 percent.
Data from TurkStat also showed that the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 10.3 percent in April with a 0.4 percentage point increase.
The number of unemployed persons aged 15 and over declined by 201,000 on an annualized basis in April, amounting to 3.09 million, according to the data.
“In the same period, the non-agricultural unemployment rate was 11.4 percent with a one percentage point decrease,” the institute said.
“While the youth unemployment rate for persons aged 15-24 was 16.9 percent with a 2.9 percentage point decrease, the unemployment rate for persons aged 15-64 was 9.8 percent with a 0.9 percentage point decrease,” it added.
TurkStat also noted the number of employed rose by 850,000 to some 29 million in the same period, taking the employment rate to 47.9 percent with a 0.7 percentage point increase year-on-year.
In the distribution of employment by sector, 18.3 percent were employed in agriculture, 19.5 percent in industry, 7.4 percent in construction and 54.8 percent worked in services, the data showed.
The labor force participation rate (LFPR) was 52.2 percent, a 0.3 percentage point annualized rise, while the number of people in the labor force totaled nearly 32.1 million – rising by 650,000.
Official figures showed the LFPR for males was 72.4 percent with a 0.1 percentage point increase and 34 percent for females with an annual hike of 0.6 percentage points.
TurkStat also reported that the rate of unregistered employment — people working without social security related to their principal occupation — was 33.3 percent in April, marking a 0.6 percentage point decrease year-on-year.