Unemployment falls by 0.5 pct in May

The Turkish Statistics Institute (TurkStat) announced household labor data yesterday, according to which unemployment dropped in the country by 0.5 percent in May compared to the previous month. The data showed that the unemployment rate fell from 9.3 percent in April to 8.8 percent in May. Commenting on the unemployment figures, Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan said that unemployment must be cut to 6 percent and added: "Unemployment decreased to 8.8 percent as of May and we hope to see more reductions in the coming months. We hope to generate employment with increasing production and investment in industries which are the future of the Turkish economy. We need our industrialists to stay in the manufacturing sector instead of moving to other sectors such as the service sector."