Unemployment surged to a decade high of 14.7% in the December-February period as economic activity slowed after a currency crisis saw the lira lose nearly 30% last year. The crisis led to year-over-year economic contractions in the last three quarters.
Unemployment was up 2.8 percentage points compared to a year ago, and was up from 12.8% in the previous three-month period that ended in June.
The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate stood at 13.9% in the same period, down a bit from 14.0% in the previous period, which was its highest level in the institute's data going back to 2005.
The non-agricultural unemployment rate rose to 15.3% from 15% a month earlier. Youth unemployment rose 5.4 percentage points to almost 25%, the data also showed.