Unemployment surged to a decade high of 14.7 percent in the December-February period as economic activity slowed ISTANBUL: Turkey’s unemployment rate declined to 12.8 percent in the April-June period, data from the Turkish Statistical Institute showed on Thursday, but the seasonally adjusted rate climbed to its highest on record. Unemployment surged to a decade high of 14.7 percent in the December-February period as economic activity slowed after a currency crisis saw the lira lose nearly 30 percent last year. As a result of the crisis, the economy contracted annually in the last quarter of 2018 and the first quarter of this year. Year-on-year, unemployment rose 3.1 percentage points to 12.8 percent in the April-June period, the data showed. In the March-May period it stood at 13 percent. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate hit 14 percent in the same period, its highest level in the statistical institute’s data going back to 2005. The non-agricultural unemployment rate was unchanged from a month earlier at 15 percent, the data showed. The unemployment rate had surged to 14.7 percent in the December-February period, its highest level in a decade