4.5 million people are unemployed in Turkey, according to state agency

* Photo: Anadolu Agency (AA)

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The Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat), the state agency responsible for producing official statistics on the country, shared the "Labor Force Statistics" for April 2021 with the public today (June 10).

According to the TurkStat, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate stood at 13.9 percent in April. The number of unemployed persons aged 15 years old and over increased by 275 thousand to 4 million 511 thousand persons in April 2021 in Turkey compared to the previous month. The unemployment rate occurred as 13.9 percent with 0.9 percentage point increase.

Employment rate: 44.2 percent

The statistics of the Institute have also shown that the number of employed persons decreased by 193 thousand to 28 million 56 thousand persons in April 2021 compared to the previous month. The employment rate was 44.2 percent with a 0.4 percentage point decrease.

The number of persons who were in the labor force was 32 million 567 thousand with an 83 thousand persons increase in April 2021 compared to the previous month. The labor force participation rate was 51.3 percent with a 0.1 percentage point increase.

Women's and youth unemployment

According to the TurkStat, the unemployment rate of women decreased by 0.4 percent to 15.9 percent in a month. Their employment rate was 27.4 percent. The number of unemployed women was 1 million 661 thousand while over 21 million women were not in the workforce.

The youth unemployment rate in the 15-24 age group was 25.6 percent with a 0.1 percentage point increase compared to the previous month and the employment rate was 32 percent with 0.5 percentage point increase. The labor force participation rate in this age group stood at 43 percent with 0.8 percentage points increase compared to the previous month.

54.2 percent of employment was in services

The TurkStat statistics have shown that in April, the number of agricultural employment increased by 62 thousand persons, construction increased by 9 thousand persons while industry decreased by 212 thousand persons and services decreased by 52 thousand persons.

According to the distribution of employment by sector; 18 percent was employed in agriculture, 21.3 percent was in industry, 6.4 percent was employed in construction and 54.2 percent was employed in services.

Labor underutilization rate: 27.4 percent

In April 2021, the rate of composite measure of labor underutilization consisting of time-related underemployment, potential labor force and unemployment was 27.4 percent with 1.7 percentage point increase compared to the previous month. While the combined rate of time-related underemployment and unemployment realized as 19.9 percent, combined rate of unemployment and potential labor force realized as 21.9 percent.

Unregistered employment

In April 2021, the rate of unregistered employment stood at 28.4 percent with a 0.8 percentage point decrease compared to the same month of the previous year. The rate of unregistered employment in the non-agricultural sector realized as 16.4 oercent with 0.7 percentage point decrease compared to the same month of the previous year. (HA/SD)