Over 1m jobs created in Turkey

Turkish Minister ofEconomy Zafer Caglayan on Monday said that the economy created 1 million 157 thousand jobs in the past year and explained that the number of unemployment increased not because they lost their jobs, but rather more people entered the labor market. Caglayan evaluated the data of the Turkey Statistical Institute (TurkStat) for the month of March. Caglayan said that number of the unemployed in the period of February-March-April increased 10.1 percent and added that the number was higher than last year, but lower than February. Caglayan reminded that the rate of unemployment in March last year was about 9.9 percent and explained, "The number of the unemployed increased not because they lost their jobs, but rather more people entered the labor market." He underlined that the economy created 86 percent new jobs, and that the number increased compared to last year 1 million 157 thousand and reached 24 million 974 thousand people. The number of unemployed increased compared to last year by 186 thousand and reached 2 million 801 thousand people.