TurkStat: 3 million 990 thousand people were unemployed in Turkey in 2021

* Photo: Bekir Güneş / Tigris Haber

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The Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat), offering official statistics on Turkey, has released the "Labor Force Statistics" for 2021.

According to the TurkStat statistics, the number of unemployed people aged 15 years old and over decreased by 121 thousand to 3 million 919 thousand people in 2021 compared to the previous year.

The unemployment rate decreased by 1.1 percentage points to 12 percent. It was estimated at 10.7 percent for men, 14.7 percent for women. The easing of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak is considered to have played a role in the 1-percent annual improvement.

Employment rate: 45.2 percent

Number of employed people aged 15 years old and over have been announced as 28 million 797 thousand people with 2 million 102 thousand increase and the employment rate stood at 45.2 percent with 2.5 percentage point increase in 2021 compared to the previous year. This rate was estimated by TurkStat at 62.8 percent for men and 28 percent for women.

Labor force participation rate: 51.4 percent

According to TurkStat, the labor force was 32 million 716 thousand people with 1 million 981 thousand increase and the labor force participation rate stood at 51.4 percent with 2.3 percentage point increase in 2021 compared to the previous year. The labor force participation rate was estimated at 70.3 percent for men and 32.8 percent for women.

Youth unemployment rate: 22.6 percent

The official TurkStat data have said that the youth unemployment rate for the 15-24 age group was 22.6 percent with a 2.3 percentage point decrease in 2021. The unemployment rate in this age group was estimated as 19.4 percent for men and 28.7 percent for women.

55.3 percent in services sector

In 2021, 17.2 percent of total employment was in agriculture, 21.3 percent was employed in industry, 6.2 percent was employed in construction and 55.3 percent was employed in the services sector.

While the share of employed in industry saw a 0.8 percentage point increase and the share of construction saw a 0.4 percentage point increase, the share of agriculture saw a 0.5 percentage point decrease and services a 0.6 percentage point decrease compared to the previous year.

In 2021, 4 million 948 thousand people were employed in agriculture, 6 million 143 thousand people were employed in industry, 1 million 777 thousand people were employed in construction and 15 million 928 thousand persons were employed in the services sector.

Compared with the previous year, the number of employed people in agriculture increased by 211 thousand people, that of industry increased by 661 thousand people, construction increased by 231 thousand people and the services increased by 998 thousand people.

Labor underutilization rate: 24.4 percent

According to the TurkStat statistics, in 2021, the rate of composite measure of labor underutilization consisting of time-related underemployment, potential labor force and unemployment was 24.4 percent with 1 point decrease compared to the previous year.

While the combined rate of time-related underemployment and unemployment stood at 16.8 percent last year, combined rate of unemployment and potential labor force realized as 20 percent.

Supplementary labor force indicators, 2020, 2021

Employment, unemployment by regions

TRC3 (Mardin, Batman, Şırnak, Siirt) region had the highest unemployment rate with 29.8 percent and TR82 (Kastamonu, Çankırı, Sinop) region had the lowest unemployment rate with 5.8 percent.

On the other hand, TR21 (Tekirdağ, Edirne, Kırklareli) region had the highest employment rate with 52.0 percent. TRC3 (Mardin, Batman, Şırnak, Siirt) region had the lowest employment rate with 29.9 percent.

TR21 (Tekirdağ, Edirne, Kırklareli) region had the highest labor force participation rate with 57.3 percent. TRC2 (Şanlıurfa, Diyarbakır) region had the lowest labor force participation rate with 40.6 percent. (SD)