One in five young people jobless in Turkey

One in five young people jobless in Turkey

Turkey’s jobless rate had edged up 0.3 percent in December over the same month a year ago to reach 10.1 percent

One out of five people between the ages of 15 and 24 were unemployed in Turkey in December, with the country’s youth unemployment rate hitting 19.8 percent, data from the Turkish Statistics Institute (TurkStat) showed on Friday.

TurkStat announced that Turkey’s jobless rate had edged up 0.3 percent in December over the same month a year ago to reach 10.1 percent. This marked the first return to double digits in unemployment figures since February 2012. The institute also stated that the unemployment rate for non-agricultural jobs had increased by 0.4 percent to 12.4 percent in December, while youth unemployment grew to 19.8 percent, a 1.7 percent increase over the same period of 2011.

Turkey is not the only country suffering from high youth unemployment figures, one of the most critical dimensions of unemployment, socially and politically. December’s figures showed that the Turkish youth jobless rate remained below EU levels. The youth unemployment rate was 23.4 percent in the 27-member EU and 24 percent in the eurozone in December, the European statistics office EuroStat had earlier reported.

Friday’s figures put the total number of people without a job in December at 2.79 million. TurkStat’s figures also show that Turkey’s labor force grew to 24.76 million in December, up from 23.67 million in the same month of the preceding year. The labor force participation (LFPR) rate was calculated at 50 percent in December.

The statistics office last week announced that Turkey’s unemployment had dropped to 9.2 percent last year from 9.8 percent in 2011.

via One in five young people jobless in Turkey | Economy | World Bulletin.