Turkey’s unemployment rate stood unchanged in November from a month earlier, while a seasonally adjusted measure of labor underutilization dipped, official data showed on Monday.
The jobless rate came in at 11.2% in November, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said, with labor underutilization falling 0.7 percentage points to 22.1%.
The labor underutilization measure was on a falling trend for much of last year after peaking at 29.5% last January under the impact of measures to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
The number of unemployed people aged 15 and over rose slightly by 39,000 to nearly 3.77 million in November, according to the data.
The labor force participation rate rose 0.4 percentage points from a month earlier to 52.5% in November, data from TurkStat also showed.
The number of employed people increased by 228,000 to over 29.85 million, placing the employment rate at 46.6% with a 0.3 percentage point increase in November 2021.
It preceded a volatile December in which the currency swung and inflation soared to 36%.
The youth unemployment rate in the 15-24 age group was 22.3% with a 1.7 percentage point increase compared to the previous month, the statistical institute noted.
“According to the distribution of employment by sector; 17.1% was employed in agriculture, 21.6% was employed in industry, 6.1% was employed in construction and 55.2% was employed in services,” the institute added.
During the same month, agricultural employment increased by 49,000 people, while the industry and services sectors added 73,000 and 96,000 jobs, respectively.
The rate of unregistered employment – people working without social security related to their principal occupation – was 29% with a 0.7 percentage point fall compared to the same month of the previous year.
