Turkey’s unemployment rate rose to 14.0 percent in the July-September period from 13.9 percent a month earlier, official data showed on Friday, with youth unemployment hitting a record high of 27.4 percent as a recession continued to hit workers, Reuters reported.
A currency crisis last year depressed economic activity and weakened the jobs market, although the latest industrial production data has pointed to a recovery in economic activity.
The unemployment rate rose from 13.9 percent a month earlier and 11.1 percent in the same period last year, Turkish Statistical Institute data showed. Youth unemployment rose to a record high of 27.4 percent from 20.8 percent a year earlier.
Last year’s currency crisis, when the lira lost nearly 30 percent of its value against the dollar, sent unemployment to a near-decade high of 14.7 percent in the first quarter.
According to Turkey’s latest three-year economic program, unemployment is seen at 12.9 percent by year end and down to 11.8 percent by the end of 2020.
Turkey’s economy shrank 1.5 percent in the second quarter after a 2.4 percent drop in the first. Demand has started to pick up as inflation has fallen and as the central bank slashed rates by 1,000 points since July.
Data on Thursday showed industrial production increased 3.4 percent year-on-year in September after 12 months of contraction, in a sign of an economic recovery.
The non-agricultural unemployment rate rose to 16.7 percent from 16.5 percent a month earlier, the data showed. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell to 14.2 percent, after hitting a record high of 14.3 percent a month earlier.
