Turkey's unemployment rate down to 9.2 pct in 2012

ANKARA, March 6 (Xinhua) -- Turkey's unemployment rate stood at 9.2 percent in 2012, 0.6 percent lower from a year earlier, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said on Wednesday.

The unemployment rate in Turkey's urban area was 11.1 percent in 2012, 0.8 percent lower than the previous year, and down to 5.5 percent in rural area.

The TurkStat said among those employed in 2012, 24.6 percent were in agriculture, 19.1 percent in industry, 6.9 percent in construction and 49.4 percent in service sector.

The TurkStat data also revealed that youth jobless rate stood at 17.5 percent and nonagricultural unemployment was 11.5 percent in 2012.

The statistics meanwhile show a modest improvement in the percentage of women in the workforce, which grew by 0.7 percent to 29.5 percent in 2012.

Analysts said that the improvement of the jobless rate in Turkey may signal the economic development in the first quarter steps into a fast lane.

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