Turkey: Unemployment rate at 12.9% in November

ANKARA

Turkey's unemployment rate was 12.9% with a 0.4-percentage-point decrease in November 2020, the Turkish Statistical Institute announced on Wednesday.

The number of unemployed aged 15 and over decreased 303,000 to 4.5 million as of November compared to the same month of 2019, according to the institute.

It showed the non-agricultural unemployment rate also fell 0.6 percentage points to 14.8%, year-on-year in November.

The employment rate saw a 2.7-percentage-point decrease to 42.9% during the same period.

The youth unemployment rate between ages 15-24 was 25.4% with a 0.9-percentage-point rise.

The distribution of employment by sector was 56.2% in the services sector, 20.9% in industry, 16.7% in agriculture, and 6.2% in construction, according to TurkStat data.

Turkey's labor force participation rate was at 39.6% with a 3.6-percentage-point decrease, it showed.

The labor force participation rate for men dropped by 3.2 percentage points to 68.4%, while it stood at 30.6% for women with an annual decline of 3.3 percentage points.

The rate of unregistered employment – people working without social security related to their principal occupation – was 29.7% in November, down by 4.1 points on a yearly basis.

In November 2019, the country's unemployment rate was 13.3%, with 4.3 million unemployed people aged 15 and above.