Only 10 percent of the unemployed receive unemployment benefits

Photo:Çanakkale Gündem

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The Turkish Employment Agency (İŞKUR) has announced that it paid employment benefits and short term allowance to more than two million people in July.

According to the agency's Unemployment Insurance Fund Bulletin, 401,645 people were paid unemployment benefits and 1.7 million people were paid short-time work benefits, which was introduced during the coronavirus pandemic.

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The number of people who received unemployment benefits was 464,930 in June, 530,102 in May, 592,130 in April, 594,577 in March, 592,810 in February and 610,287 in January, the İŞKUR figures showed.

As announced by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat), the number of unemployed was 3,82 million in May.

The amount of money the İŞKUR paid was 494,6 million lira (1 USD = 7.23 TRY) in July and 4.5 billion lira in the first seven months of the year.

It also paid 2.5 billion lira to 1.7 million people as short-time work benefits. The daily payment was 39.24 lira whereas the daily minimum wage in the country is 98,1 lira.

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The number of people who received short-time work benefits was 2.48 million in June, 3.28 million in May, 3.24 million in April and 96,636 in March.

The İŞKUR said it has paid 3.61 billion lira in total during the pandemic, without giving further details.

As of August 9, the İŞKUR'S fund assets were 111.27 billion lira, it stated.

As of the end of July 2020, 85.84 percent of the fund's tangible and financial assets consist of bonds and 14.16 percent consists of deposit money. (HA/VK)