June unemployment figures released by the Turkish Statistical Institute show a slight increase of 0.8 percent, compared to last year, in Turkey's unemployment rate, which totaled 8.8 percent in June.

The number of unemployed went up to 2,525,000 compared to figures from the same month last year, which was at 2,226,000.

Employment figures however rose from 25,577,000 last year up to 26,319,000 this June.

Economy Minister Zafer Çağlayan announced that employment figures in Turkey have reached a record level at 26.3 million. Pointing out that over that past year, 742,000 jobs have been created and over the past five years, an additional 6.5 million have been employed, Çağlayan stated, "In terms of employment, we are one of the rare number of successful countries."