Turkey’s unemployment rate dropped 1.1 percentage points year-over-year to 12% in 2021, data from the statistical institute showed on Wednesday.

The number of unemployed persons – aged 15 years old and over – dropped by 121,000 to 3.9 million in 2021 compared to 2020, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said.

On the other hand, a seasonally adjusted measure of labor underutilization dropped 1 percentage point to 24.4%, the data showed.

The labor underutilization measure was on a falling trend for much of last year after peaking at 29.5% in January 2021 due to the impact of measures to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

The unemployment rate was 10.7% for men and 14.7% for women, the institute said.

The statistical body also noted that the number of employed persons was 28.8 million with a 2.1 million increase and the employment rate was 45.2%, registering a 2.5 percentage point increase year-over-year in 2021.

The agency said that the labor force was 32.7 million with a 1.98 million increase and the labor force participation rate stood at 51.4% with a 2.3 percentage point increase in 2021 compared to the previous year.

The youth unemployment rate for the 15-24 age group fell 2.3 percentage points to 22.6%, the data showed. The unemployment rate in this age group was estimated as 19.4% for men and 28.7% for women.

In 2021, some 17.2% of total employment was engaged in agriculture, 21.3% in industry, 6.2% in construction, and 55.3% in the services sector, the data showed.

The share of people employed in the industry and construction surged 0.8 and 0.4 percentage points, respectively, while it dropped 0.5 and 0.6 percentage points in the agriculture and services sectors.