Turkey: Unemployment rate at 11.1 pct in Aug.

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA

Turkey's unemployment rate stood at 11.1 percent in August, the country's statistical authority announced on Thursday.

The figure was up 0.5 percentage points compared to the same month a year earlier, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat).

The number of unemployed persons aged 15 years and over increased by 266,000 year-on-year to reach 3.67 million in August.

The non-agricultural unemployment rate also rose 0.4 percentage points to 13.2 percent during the same period.

The youth unemployment rate -- persons aged between 15 and 24 -- was 20.8 percent, indicating an increase of 0.2-percentage points on a yearly basis in August.

TurkStat said unemployment for the 15-64 age group went up 0.6 percentage points annually to 11.4 percent in August.

In August, the employment rate rose by 0.3 percentage points from the same month last year up to 48.3 percent.

"The number of employed persons rose by 490,000 to 29.3 million persons in August 2018 compared with the same period of last year," it said.

The labor force participation rate (LFPR) rose by 0.6 percentage points year-on-year to reach 54.3 percent in the month.

"LFPR for males was 74.1 percent with 0.6 percentage point increase and the rate for females was 34.9 percent with 0.6 percentage point increase compared with the same period of last year," TurkStat said.

The rate of unregistered employment -- people working without social security related to their principal occupation -- was 34 percent in July, marking a decrease of 1.1-percentage points from August 2017.

The institute will release its next unemployment report on Dec. 17.