Turkey's monthly jobs growth highest for last 3 years

The number of seasonally adjusted employed people in Turkey increased by 210,000, the highest increase in the last three years, data showed.According to December 2013 data released by the Turkish Statistical Institute, the country’s unemployment rate (seasonally adjusted) decreased by 0.4 point to 9.4 percent in December last year, from 9.8 percent in November 2013; the December figure was the lowest point in the last nine months.In the same month, the number of unemployed people decreased by 99,000 compared with November 2013.The seasonally adjusted non-agricultural unemployment rate decreased to 11.6 percent in December from 12 percent in November 2013.Turkey’s seasonally-adjusted labor force participation rate was at 50.9 percent in December 2013, an increase of 0.1 percentage point; the employment rate was realized as 46.1 percent, an increase of 0.3 percentage points compared to November 2013.The highest increase for employed persons by economic activity was in the services sector which saw an increase of 84,000 people, the highest increase over the last 14 months. Employment in Turkey’s industrial sector increased by 29,000 people in December 2013, consistent with the country’s increasing Industrial Production Index in November and December 2013.Turkey's industrial production increased by 1.1 percent in January 2014 compared with December 2013 and increased by 7.3 percent compared to the same month last year, according to the TurkStat.Employment in the agriculture sector increased by 54,000 persons in December 2013.Analysts say that the deterioration of March-September of 2013 period in the employment market saw a recovery in the fourth quarter of the last year. They also claimed the latest data in the employment market indicate a temporary loss in February but said that the recovery is to continue.The unemployment rate (non-seasonally adjusted) in Turkey reached 10 percent in December 2013, a 0.1 percentage point increase from the previous month. The number of unemployed increased by nearly 19,000 to reach over 2.8 million people nationwide.In comparison, the unemployment rate in the European Union stands at 12%, according to the Eurostat statistics office.