UNEMPLOYMENT RATE IS BELOW 9 PERCENT AFTER 10 YEARS AS A RESULT OF STRONG MONTHLY INCREASE IN EMPLOYMENT
Seyfettin Gürsel, Betül Akbulut
While employment decreases from July to September, there is a strong increase of 246,000 people from September to October. While the number of unemployed people decreased by 163,000, the total labor force increased approximately 83,000. As a result, the unemployment rate decreased from 9 percent to 8.5 percent. The last unemployment rate was recorded as 8.8 percent in June 2013.
The seasonally adjusted female unemployment rate decreased by 0.8 percentage points from September to October, reaching 11.3 percent, as a result of a 144,000 increase in employment and 84,000 decrease in the number of unemployed. On the other hand, the male unemployment rate decreased by 0.4 percentage points, reaching 7 percent in October, following a 102,000 increase in employment and a 79,000 decrease in the number of unemployed males.
The female labor force level increased by 109,000, while the male labor force level increased by 23,000. Consequently, the gender gap in unemployment rates decreased from 4.4 percentage points to 4.3 percentage points in October.