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Turkey joblessness dips below 14%, still high after recession – Metro US

Turkey joblessness dips below 14%, still high after recession

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkey’s unemployment rate edged down to 13.8% https://tmsnrt.rs/2NQX20M in the August-October period, from 14.0% a month earlier, according to official data on Monday that suggested jobs remain elusive despite the economy having emerged from a recession.

The economy expanded 0.9% year-on-year in the third quarter, breaking three consecutive quarters of contraction brought on by last year’s currency crisis. Unemployment has been volatile but lofty after hitting a 10-year peak of 14.7% early this year.

For a graphic on Turkey’s youth unemployment remains elevated, click on https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/editorcharts/TURKEY-ECONOMY-UNEMPL…

Recent data have pointed to an upswing in activity, with industrial production rising for a second month in October, although the year-on-year expansion of 3.8% was less than expected.

The August-October jobless rate was still above the 11.4% level a year earlier, the Turkish Statistical Institute said. The youth jobless rate, which hit a record high of 27.4% a month earlier, fell to 26.1% in the three-month period.

After the data, the lira stood at 5.8455 against the dollar, weaker than a close of 5.8120 on Friday.

The non-agricultural unemployment rate dipped to 16.4% in Aug-Oct from 16.7% a month earlier, the data showed. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell to 13.9% from 14.2% a month earlier.

(Reporting by Daren Butler; Editing by Tuvan Gumrukcu and Jonathan Spicer)