Tuba Şahin
16 December 2019•Update: 16 December 2019
ANKARA
Unemployment in Turkey reached 13.8% in September, said the country's statistical authority on Monday.
September figures showed an annual rise of 2.4 percentage points, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said.
"The number of unemployed persons aged 15 years old and over increased by 817,000 to 4.57 million persons in September 2019 in Turkey compared to the same period last year," it noted.
Non-agricultural unemployment rate stood at 16.4%, showing a 2.9 percentage point year-on-year rise.
The unemployment rate for young people age 15-24 surged 4.5 percentage points to 26.1% during the same period.
The figure for persons age 15-64 climbed 2.4 percentage points on a yearly basis to 14.1% in the month.
Meanwhile, the number of employed persons fell to 28.44 million in September, down 623,000 from the same month last year, indicating a 46.1% employment rate in the country.
"According to the distribution of employment by sector, 19.3% were employed in agriculture, 19.5% in industry, 5.5% in construction, and 55.7% in services," it said.
Official data showed Turkey's labor force participation rate slipped 0.5 percentage points year-on-year to 53.5% in September.
Women's participation rate in the workforce was 34.9%, unchanged from the same month last year.
As laid out in Turkey's new economic program announced this September, the government targets a 12.9% unemployment rate for 2019.
