Turkey's unemployment rate rose to 11.7 pct in March

By Dilara Zengin

ANKARA (AA) - The unemployment rate in Turkey rose 1.6 percentage points in March compared to the same month of last year but fell 0.9 percentage points from the previous month, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) announced on Thursday.

The number of jobless in the country aged 15 and over increased to 3.6 million in March 2017, a rise of 619,000 from March 2016; the unemployment rate stood at 11.7 percent, a TurkStat statement added.

This was a 0.9 percentage point drop from February 2017 when the national unemployment rate was 12.6 percent.

March's employment rate stood at 46.1 percent and remained unchanged from the same period last year.

The labor force participation rate was also up by 0.9 percentage point year-on-year, rising to 52.2 percent.

The report revealed that the number of women participating in the workforce climbed 1.3 percentage points from the previous year to 32.9 percent.