The number of people “too discouraged” to search for work was up nearly threefold from a year ago Lost jobs in the service, tourism and construction sectors are hurting Turkey’s poorest households the most LONDON: Turkey’s official unemployment rate rose to 13.4 percent in the May-July period after a coronavirus lockdown was lifted, official data revealed on Thursday. The number of unemployed people aged 15 and over increased to 4.1 million, Nasdaq reported. Meanwhile, the number of people “too discouraged” to search for work was up nearly threefold from a year ago, a poll by Istanbul Economics Research found. Of those who had jobs last month, nearly half were “very afraid” of losing them by winter, the poll found. Some remain skeptical about the official figures including economist Mustafa Sönmez who tweeted saying that the number of unemployed actually stood at 8.6 million, which would suggest a real unemployment rate of about 25 percent. Lost jobs in the service, tourism and construction sectors are hurting Turkey’s poorest households the most, according to the World Bank. The Turkish lira slipped to a record low last week on concerns around stubbornly high inflation and the currency had lost about 20 percent of its value in 2020.