Report: Covid-19 caused greatest loss of employment in Turkey's history

People queue up in front of a Turkish Employment Agency building.

Click to read the article in Turkish

The number of unemployed people stood at 9,75 million (28.7 percent) in April, according to the broad definition of unemployment, according to a union report based on the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) figures.

When the number of full-time job losses due to the Covid-19 pandemic was added, the number reached 17.7 million, said the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey Research Center (DİSK-AR).

According to the TurkStat figures, the number of unemployed dropped by 427,000 to 3.77 million in April and the unemployment rate decreased by 0.2 points to 12.8 percent.

Saying that the TurkStat figures were "too low to reflect the earthquake created by Covid-19," the DİSK-AR noted it used the International Labor Organization's (ILO) "full-time equivalent loss of jobs" method to calculate the loss of jobs and unemployment.

It said that it used an alternative method of calculation because the TurkStat figures consider millions of people who receive a short-time work allowance or unpaid leave allowance are employed.

According to the DİSK-AR report;

• The aggregated loss of jobs and the unemployment rate was 52 percent in April.
• The "broad labor force" was 33.97 million, whereas the TurkStat calculated that the workforce decreased from 32.4 million to 29.38 million in a year.
• The labor force participation rate decreased from 52.9 percent in April 2019 to 47.2 percent in April 2020.
• Women's labor force decreased by 13.9 percent, women's employment decreased by 11.9 percent.
• Employment decreased by 2.85 million in a year.
• The number of people at work decreased by 7.1 million to 20.45 million.
• The number of "desperate unemployed" rose from 553,000 to 1.31 million.
• The average weekly working time decreased from 44.6 hours in April 2019 to 39.6 hours in April 2020.
• In a year, the total labor force decreased by 9.3 percent, men's labor force decreased by 7 percent and women's labor force decreased by 13.9 percent.
• Total employment decreased by 9.2 percent, men's employment decreased by 7.9 percent and women's employment decreased by 11.9 percent.
• The number of those at work decreased by 23.5 percent among men and 30.8 percent among women. (HA/VK)