The unemployment rate in Türkiye fell 0.3% percentage points month-over-month in February, official data showed Monday, edging toward the lowest in a decade near levels touched in October last year.

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate dropped to 8.7%, a four-month low, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said.

It is down from 9% in January 2024 and 10% in February 2023. Unemployment was 8.5% in October 2023, the lowest in a decade.

The number of jobless slipped by 109,000 to 3.08 million last month. According to the data, the unemployment rate came in at 7.3% for men and 11.3% for women.

The number of employed persons surged by 147,000 to over 32.4 million, which officials say marks the highest level ever. The employment rate occurred at 49.3%, with an increase of 0.2 percentage points.

"While our employment exceeded 32.4 million in February, our employment rate, reaching 49.3%, continues to hover at the highest levels in our history," said Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz.

"In the upcoming period, we will continue to pursue employment-friendly policies that activate the labor potential, especially focusing on youth and women, alongside policies that sustain economic stability, and we will implement our program with determination," Yılmaz wrote on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

After last year's presidential and parliamentary elections, Türkiye reversed years of easing policy. It delivered aggressive tightening, mainly aimed at curbing inflation, which is soaring toward 70%, rebuilding reserves and flipping chronic current account deficits to surpluses.

The country's central bank has raised its key one-week repo rate by 4,150 basis points from 8.5% to 50% since last June. After last month's 500 basis point hike that stunned the markets, the bank cited a deteriorating inflation outlook and pledged to tighten even further if it expects the price situation to worsen significantly.

Inflation is expected to continue rising toward the mid-year before entering what officials expect to be a steep downward trend in the second half of 2024.

The central bank last month took other steps to tighten credit, including action on reserve requirements, prompting some banks to either reduce loan limits or even stop offering loans. It also raised the maximum rate on credit card cash withdrawals.

A tighter fiscal policy is expected to add to the rising credit costs.

Labor and Social Security Minister Vedat Işıkhan echoed Yılmaz's view.

"Our employment figure renewed its historical peak with 32.4 million, increasing by 147,000 people in February 2024 compared to the month earlier," Işıkhan wrote on X.

"We will continue our growth focused on investment, production, employment, and exports with determined steps."

The data from TurkStat showed that the labor force participation rate remained unchanged in February at 54%, while a seasonally adjusted measure of labor under-utilization fell 1.9 percentage points to 24.5%.

Yılmaz said the unemployment rate for women reached its lowest level in about 10 years.

The youth unemployment rate – ages 15-24 – fell to 15.6% in February from 16.4% in January. The rate was 13.3% for men and 19.6% for women.