Turkey's unemployment stood at 13.5 percent in December

The unemployment rate in Turkey was 13.5 percent in December 2018, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) announced on Friday.

"The unemployment rate [was] 13.5 percent with 3.1 percentage point increase [from December 2017]," TurkStat said in a statement. December's figure was also up from 12.3 percent from a month earlier.

The number of jobless aged 15 and over in the country rose to 4.3 million, a rise of 1 million from December 2017. The employment rate fell 1.5 percentage points year-on-year to 45.4 percent – almost 27.7 million – in the month.

"According to the distribution of employment by sector, 57.0 percent were employed in services, 19.8 percent in industry, 17.3 percent were employed in agriculture, and 5.8 percent in construction," it said.

December's labor force participation rate (LFPR) remained at 52.4 percent compared to the same month of the previous year. The number of people in the labor force reached nearly 32 million in the month with an annual rise of 378,000.

The TurkStat report revealed that the number of women in the workforce increased 0.1 percentage point from the previous year to 33.6 percent. It added that youth unemployment rate, including persons aged 15-24, reached 24.9 percent with a 1.8-percentage point increase during the same period.

The institute will release its next employment figures on March 25. Over the past five years, the lowest unemployment rate was 8.8 percent in May 2014 while the highest was recorded in December 2018. Last year, the lowest unemployment rate was in April at 9.6 percent.