ISTANBUL, Sept 17: Turkey’s unemployment rate fell to 8.0 per cent of the workforce in the three months from May to July, the lowest in more than a decade, official data showed on Monday.

The number of unemployed people fell by 311,000 over the period to reach 2.226 million, Turkish Statistics Institute (TUIK) said on its website on the basis of a survey of 95,699 people. Unemployed rate stood at 9.2 per cent in the same period of 2011. Since then the number of people in jobs increased from 24.901 million to 25.577 million.

Turkey’s economy staged a spectacular recovery from the global crisis, growing by 8.9 per cent in 2010 and by 8.5 per cent in 2011.

Unemployment remains a major challenge for the government in a 73 million strong country where many young people enter the workforce each year.

Turkey’s jobless rate is determined through household surveys across the country which is then used to make a nationwide three-month projection.—AFP