Turkey's unemployment rate up slightly at 10.8 percent in July
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Turkey's unemployment rate stood at 10.8 percent in July, a slight 0.1 percentage point increase year-on-year, Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) announced Monday.

Official data showed that the number of unemployed people aged 15 years and older increased by 88,000 to reach 3.53 million people.

The unemployment rate increased by 0.6 percentage points in July compared to the previous month.

The non-agricultural unemployment rate was estimated to be 12.9 percent in July, down 0.1 percentage points year-on-year, TurkStat said.

The youth unemployment rate, which includes people 15-24 years of age, decreased by 1.2 percentage points year-on-year to 19.9 percent. The unemployment rate in the 15-64 age group increased by 0.1 percentage points to 11 percent.

In June, the unemployment rate remained unchanged year-on-year at 10.2 percent, but up from 9.7 percent in May, TurkStat said.

In July, the employment rate rose by 0.2 percentage points from the same month last year up to 48.2 percent.

"The number of employed persons rose by 507,000 to 29.3 million persons in the period of July 2018 compared with the same period of the last year," it said.

The labor force participation rate (LFPR) rose by 0.3 percentage points on a yearly basis and reached 54 percent in the month.

"LFPR among men was 73.8 percent with a 0.3 percentage point increase and the rate among women was 34.7 percent with a 0.4 percentage point increase compared with the same period of the previous year," TurkStat said.

It also reported that the rate of unregistered employment -- people working without social security related to their principal occupation -- was 34.4 percent in July, marking a decrease of 0.9-percentage points from July 2017.

Last year, the lowest unemployment rate was seen in May and June at 10.2 percent. Over the past five years, the highest unemployment rate was 13 percent in January 2017, while the lowest was in June 2013 at 8.1 percent.