Turkey's unemployment rate rose to 10.8% in July from 10.2% in June, national statistics institute TUIK announced on October 15.

“The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate has gone up from 9.9% to 11.0% in July, highlighting a trend that is likely to continue for a while given the ongoing deterioration in the growth outlook,” Muhammet Mercan of ING Bank said in a research note.

“On a sequential basis, job creation in July turned marginally negative (-6K), driven by services (77K) and agriculture (3K) while industry (-34K) and construction (-52K) dragged. It is worth noting that construction employment declined for the sixth month in a row, indicative of the growing difficulties in the sector following the recent financial volatility,” Mercan added.

The unadjusted joblessness rate was recorded at 10.8% in January but fell across the following three months to 9.6% in April before rising in the following three months through to July. It stood at 10.7% in July last year.

The past few months have seen many warnings from analysts that Turkey is on course for a deep recession.

The latest figures also showed non-agriculture unemployment rose to 12.9% in July from 12.1% in June while youth unemployment continued to move up sharply, climbing to 19.9% from 19.4%.

The labour force participation rate edged up to 54% in July from 53.8% in June.

The number of unemployed people rose to 3.53mn in July from 3.32mn in June. The number of employed persons increased by 507,000 from July 2017 to July 2018, a figure less than the 611,000 registered for the one-year period from June 2017 to June 2018.

The number of employed persons increased by 852,000 from April 2017 to April 2018.

Turkey's unemployment rate did not budge overall in 2017, remaining at the same 10.9% rate recorded for the previous year.

Capital Economics forecasts that the unemployment rate will increase to 12% in 2018.

According to the Turkish government’s new economy programme, the rate is expected to rise to 11.3% at end-2018.