ANKARA, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek on Wednesday called for more reforms to reduce unemployment rate to single digit.
"We have to make reforms to reduce unemployment rate to a single digit and generate more jobs," he said at a capital market congress in Istanbul.
Turkey's unemployment rate dropped 0.7 percentage point to 10.6 percent in August year-on-year, Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said Wednesday.
The data also showed a slight decrease of 0.1 percentage point from July's rate of 10.7 percent, TurkStat said in a statement.
The number of jobless aged 15 and over fell to 3.4 million, down 89,000 in August 2017 compared with the same month last year.
In the same period, non-agricultural unemployment stood at 12.8 percent with a 0.9 percentage point decrease.
While youth unemployment rate for people aged 15-24 was 20.6 percent with a 0.7 percentage point increase.
Turkey had a strong growth performance and continued to provide employment despite the ongoing challenges facing the country, he added.
The government's three-year medium-term program, which it renews each year, forecast unemployment at 10.8 percent in 2017 and 10.5 percent in 2018, which will drop to single digits in 2019 and 2020.
