Turkey's unemployment rises to 12.1 pct in November

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's unemployment rate saw a 0.3 percentage point increase in November 2016 compared to the previous month, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) announced Wednesday.

The rate of people seeking a job edged up to 12.1 percent in November, up 0.3 points from the previous month, as the rate kept its steady advance for the seventh month in a row.

The report showed that unemployment also rose 1.6 percentage points over November 2015.

The number of unemployed people age 15 and over was 3.7 million in November 2016, up 590,000 from the same period the previous year.

The number of employed people was 27.07 million, up 391,000 from a year earlier, showing the Turkish economy kept creating jobs at significant clip but failed to keep pace with the growing number of people seeking jobs.

The labor force participation rate (LFPR) was 52.1 percent, up 0.9 percentage point or 980,000.

The LFPR for males was 71.9 percent, a 0.6 percentage point rise, and the rate for females was 32.7 percent, a 1.1 percentage point climb over the same period of the previous year.