Unemployment rate in Turkey reaches 13.5%, its highest level in nine years

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkey's unemployment rate climbed to 13.5 percent in November-January, its highest level in nine years, official data showed Friday, a new sign of the impact of the currency crisis from last year.

In the fourth quarter of 2018, the economy recorded a stronger-than-expected contraction of 3%, its worst performance in nearly 10 years, indicating that the nearly 30% drop in the lira last year had tipped into recession.

The number of people registered as unemployed rose to 4.3 million euros in January, an increase of more than one million compared to the previous year, while the unemployment rate reached 12.7%, according to the data from the Turkish Institute of Statistics.

In the last three months of 2018, the unemployment rate was 12.3%.

In February, the government and the Union of Chambers of Commerce and Commodity Exchanges launched a campaign to boost employment, which is expected to create jobs for 2.5 million people.

President Tayyip Erdogan and his son-in-law, Finance Minister Berat Albayrak, said Turkey had left the worst of its economic problems behind.

The non-farm unemployment rate was 15.6% in November-January, compared with 14.3% in October-December, according to the data.