UPDATE - Turkey's unemployment rate at 10.7 percent in July

UPDATES WITH QUOTES FROM ANALYST

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - The unemployment rate in Turkey remained at 10.7 percent in July compared with the same month last year, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) announced Monday.

In a statement, TurkStat said the number of jobless persons aged 15 and over in the country rose to 3.44 million, an increase of 119,000 from July last year.

However, July’s figures showed a 0.5 percentage point rise from the previous month when unemployment stood at 10.2 percent.

KapitalFX Analyst Enver Erkan said the rise in labor force participation, especially from among the youth and foreigners led the unemployment rate to remain at high levels.

"Turkish economy has the ability of creating new employment, and already does," Erkan said.

The employment rate rose 1 percentage point to 48 percent -- almost 28.8 million people -- from the same period last year.

July's labor force participation increased by one percentage point year-on-year to 53.7 percent.

"The number of persons in the labor force amounted 32 million 200 thousand persons [32.2M] with 1 million 239 thousand persons [1.239M] increase in the period of July 2017 compared with the same period of the previous year," TurkStat said.

The TurkStat report also revealed that the number of women in the workforce rose 1.3 percentage point from the previous year to 34.3 percent.

It added that youth unemployment rate, including persons aged 15-24, reached 21.1 percent with a 1.3-percentage point increase.

Pointing out the Turkish economy's growth rate hovering at around 5-6 percent in recent years, Erkan said the economy should grow at higher rates in order to reduce the unemployment rate in the country.

"Although growing better than the average of Europe and OECD [Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development]. Labor market needs more growth or structural reforms, if more growth is not sustainable," Erkan said.