Turkey's unemployment rate stood at 14.0% in August, the country's statistical authority announced on Friday.
The unemployment rate climbed 2.9 percentage points year-on-year, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said, with the number of those between work aged 15 and older coming to 4.65 million, up 980,000 from August 2018.
Youth unemployment rates, which cover the age range of 15-24, also rose 6.6 points on an annual basis to 27.4% in the month. TurkStat said non-agricultural unemployment rose 3.5 percentage points to 16.7% over the same period.
Unemployment for those of working age, namely 15-64, rose by 14.3% in August, with a 2.9 percentage points rise compared to same month last year. Data showed that August's employment rate fell 2 percentage point to 46.3%.
"The number of employed persons decreased 789,000 to 28.5 million persons in August 2019 comparative to the same period of last year," TurkStat said, with some 55.4% of total employment taken up by the services sector, 19.6% in agriculture, 19.5% in industry and 5.5% in construction.
The labor force participation rate (LFPR) in Turkey has slipped 0.4 percentage point year-on-year, standing at 53.9%. "The LFPR for males was 73.2% with a 0.9 percentage point decrease, while the rate for females was 35% with 0.1 percentage point increase over the same period of last year," the institute added.
