Turkish unemployment dips to 11.5%, underutilisation edges up

Turkey's unemployment rate declined to 11.5% in September, from 11.8% a month earlier, while a seasonally adjusted measure of labour underutilisation rose to 21.9% from 21.7%, according to data released on Wednesday.

The labour underutilisation measure had risen at the start of the year to around a peak touched during the height of the initial COVID-19 lockdown in May of 2020.

The labour force participation rate rose 0.5 percentage points from a month earlier to 51.7% in September, data from the Turkish Statistical Institute also showed.

From January, the data was presented in a new format in line with international standards.

(Reporting by Oben Mumcuoglu and Canan Sevgili; Writing by Ali Kucukgocmen; Editing by Jonathan Spicer)