Turkey saw over 1.2 million decrease in employment in 2020

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Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat), the state agency producing official statistics on Turkey, has shared the "Labor Force Statistics" for 2020.

According to the TurkStat statistics, the number of unemployed persons aged 15 years old and over was 4 million 61 thousand in 2020, with 408 thousand decrease when compared to the previous year.

While the unemployment rate was 13.2 percent with 0.5 percentage point decrease, Non-agricultural unemployment rate was estimated as 15.3 percent with 0.7 percentage point decrease.

Employment rate: 42.8 percent

The number of employed persons aged 15 years old and over was 26 million 812 thousand persons with 1 million 268 thousand persons decrease and the employment rate was 42.8 percent with 2.9 percentage point decrease in 2020, according to the TurkStat.

Labor force realized as 30 million 873 thousand persons with 1 million 676 thousand persons decrease and labor force participation rate realized as 49.3 percent with 3.7 percentage point decrease in 2020.

Rates for the 15-64 age group

Unemployment rate for the 15-64 age group was 13.4 percent with 0.6 percentage point decrease and non-agricultural unemployment rate was 15.4 percent with 0.7 percentage point decrease.

Employment rate in this age group was 47.5 percent with 2.8 percentage point decrease and the labor force participation rate was 54.9 percent with 3.6 percentage point decrease, show the statistics.

Youth unemployment: 25.3 percent

The unemployment rate for the 15-24 age group, which is also termed youth unemployment, was 25.3 percent in 2020 with 0.1 percentage point decrease while the employment rate in this age group was 29.2 percent with 3.9 percentage point decrease.

Labor force participation rate realized as 39.1 percent with 5.3 percentage point decrease. The rate of neither in employment nor in education realized as 28.3 percent with 2.3 percentage point increase.

56.2 percent of employment in services

In 2020, 17.6 percent of total employment was employed in agriculture, 20.5 percent was employed in industry, 5.7 percent was employed in construction and 56.2 percent was employed in services.

While the share of employed in industry realized as 0.7 percentage point increase and the share of construction realized as 0.2 percentage point increase in 2020, the share of agriculture realized with 0.6 percentage point decrease and that of services realized with 0.3 percentage point decrease compared with the previous year.

In 2020, 4 million 716 thousand persons were employed in agriculture, 5 million 497 thousand persons were employed in industry, 1 million 538 thousand persons were employed in construction and 15 million 60 thousand persons were employed in services.

Compared with the previous year, the number of employed in agricultural sector decreased by 381 thousand persons, industry decreased by 64 thousand persons, construction decreased by 12 thousand persons and services decreased by 812 thousand persons.

Unemployment by regions

TRC3 (Mardin, Batman, Şırnak, Siirt) region had the highest unemployment rate with 33.5 percent and TR82 (Kastamonu, Çankırı, Sinop) region had the lowest unemployment rate with 6.6 percent.

TR21 (Tekirdağ, Edirne, Kırklareli) region had the highest employment rate with 50.9 percent while the TRC3 (Mardin, Batman, Şırnak, Siirt) region had the lowest employment rate with 26.0 percent.

TR21 (Tekirdağ, Edirne, Kırklareli) region had the highest labor force participation rate with 55.9 percent. TRC2 (Şanlıurfa, Diyarbakır) region had the lowest labor force participation rate with 38.4 percent.

(HA/SD)