Türkiye's unemployment rate rose 0.3 percentage points month-over-month to 8.5% in February, official data showed on Tuesday.

The number of unemployed people rose by 133,000 to 2.98 million, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said.

The unemployment rate was estimated 6.9% for men and 11.6% for women, the TurkStat stated.

The data showed the labor force participation rate increased 0.3 points to 52.6% in February, while a seasonally adjusted measure of labor underutilization rose 0.1 percentage points to 29.9%.

The TurkStat noted that the number of persons in the labor force realized as 35.14 million, up by 286,000 over the same period.

The youth unemployment rate – aged between 15 and 24 – was at 15.8%, up 1.4 percentage points compared to the previous month, according to the data.