Turkey's unemployment drops to 7.8% in August, job market shows modest gains

Data from Turk Stat released Wednesday indicate Turkey's unemployment rate slipped to 7.8% in August, improving on July's 8.1%. The count of jobless people aged 15 and older fell by 106,000 to 2.74 million, while the employed population grew by 136,000 to reach 32.51 million. The male unemployment rate was 6.6% compared with 10.1% for women, and the overall employment rate rose to 48.4% with men at 65.8% and women at 31.5%.

The labour-force participation rate held at 52.5%, with the total labour force expanding by 29,000 to 35.25 million. Youth unemployment for ages 15-24 dropped 1.1 percentage points to 13%, with a gender gap of 9.7% for men and 19.4% for women. Average weekly working hours increased slightly to 42.5 hours.