Turkey: Unemployment falls slightly in March

ANKARA

Turkey’s unemployment inched down in March, according to a report from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) on Wednesday.

The unemployment rate fell to 10.1 percent this March from 10.6 percent in March 2015, the report said.

Unemployment saw a 0.8 percentage point decrease from February to March of the year, according to the report.

In contrast, the employment rate in March increased by 1.1 percentage points to 46.1 percent from the same period last year, as Turkey added over 1 million jobs.

The labor force participation rate also rose 0.9 percentage points in March year-on-year, to 51.3 percent.

The number of women participating in the workforce increased 0.9 percentage points from the previous year to 31.6 percent.

“The contributions of the services sector to non-agricultural employment growth strengthened, while the construction sector contribution to employment remained on course," economist Haluk Burumcekci told Anadolu Agency on Wednesday.

Burumcekci said that industrial sector employment continues to decline. "The effects of the slowdown of growth in the second quarter can be seen in the coming months," he added.

For workers aged 15-64, the unemployment rate also fell 0.5 percentage points in March compared with the same period of the previous year. The agency said that 3.023 million people in the country are out of work, a drop of 46,000.

The report also shows the ratio of people who worked without any social security in their main job at 32.9 percent in March, a 0.2 percentage point rise compared to the same month of last year.

TurkStat added that March’s youth unemployment rate, covering ages 15-24, was 17 percent, down 1.6 percentage points compared with the same month of the previous year.

Service industry employment rose slightly, 1.8 percentage points, while jobs in agriculture and industry fell.

In its latest World Economic Outlook report this April, the International Monetary Fund predicted that Turkey’s unemployment rate would rise to 10.8 percent this year.