Turkey's unemployment rate at 11.5% in September

ANKARA

The rate of unemployment in Turkey was 11.5% in September, marking a 0.3 percentage point decrease from August, according to the latest data released on Wednesday.

The number of unemployed people aged 15 and over fell by 70,000 to nearly 3.8 million, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said in a statement.

"The youth unemployment rate in the 15-24 age group was 21.5% with 0.9 percentage point decrease compared to the previous month," read the statement.

The labor force participation rate stood at 51.7% with a 0.5 percentage point increase.

The number of employed people in Turkey increased by 426,000 to over 29.2 million, placing the employment rate at 45.8% with a 0.6 percentage point increase.

According to distribution by sector, 17% of employment was in agriculture, 21.9% in industry, 6.2% in construction, and 54.9% in services.

In September, the number of agricultural employment increased by 21,000 people, while that in industry and services rose by 218,000 and 175,000, respectively.

The rate of unregistered employment, which indicates the share in total employment of employment not affiliated with a social security provider, was 30.5% with a two percentage point fall compared to the same month of the previous year.