Turkey's unemployment dropped to 9.2 percent last year from 9.8 percent in 2011, official data revealed on Wednesday reports Hurriyet

The number of people in work increased by 711,000 and reached 24.8 million, while the number of the unemployed declined by 97,000 to reach 2.51 million last year, compared to 2011, the Turkish Statistics Institute (TurkStat) announced. Last year's figures remained slightly above a government goal of 9 percent despite the 0.6 percent recovery. The government had earlier set the 2012 unemployment target at 9 percent in its Medium Term Economic Program (OVP).

One of the encouraging details in the TurkStat report was seen in non-agricultural and youth employment, each recording a 0.9 percent recovery in 2012 over the preceding year. The non-agricultural unemployment rate was 11.5 percent in 2012, while this figure was 17.5 percent among young people -- referring to the group of people between the ages of 15 and 24. Hailing the “better than expected” jobless figures first from the Cabinet was Labor Minister Faruk Çelik. In a tweet on Wednesday, Çelik said he expected annual unemployment to arrive around 9.4 percent, adding “This is better than we had foreseen.”