Türkiye’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell to 7.8% in August, down 0.3 percentage points from the previous month, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said in a statement on Wednesday.

The number of unemployed people aged 15 and over declined by 106,000 from July to 2.74 million in August.

The unemployment rate stood at 6.6% for men and 10.1% for women, according to TurkStat.

The number of employed people increased by 136,000 month-on-month to 32.51 million in August.

The seasonally adjusted employment rate rose by 0.1 percentage point to 48.4%. The rate was 65.8% for men and 31.5% for women.

The labor force increased by 29,000 from the previous month to 35.25 million, while the seasonally adjusted labor force participation rate remained unchanged at 52.5%.

The participation rate was 70.5% for men and 35.0% for women.

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate among people aged 15-24 fell by 1.1 percentage points from the previous month to 13.0%.

Youth unemployment was 9.7% among men and 19.4% among women.

The seasonally and calendar-adjusted average weekly actual working time for employed people rose by 0.5 hours in August to 42.5 hours.

Meanwhile, TurkStat’s composite measure of labor underutilization, which includes time-related underemployment, the potential labor force and unemployment, increased by 0.4 percentage points from July to 31.0%.

The combined rate of time-related underemployment and unemployment stood at 20.2%, while the combined rate of unemployment and the potential labor force was also 20.2%.

The August figures indicate that while Türkiye’s headline unemployment rate and youth unemployment declined during the month, broader measures of labor underutilization remained substantially higher. (ILKHA)