‘TurkStat’s labor force statistics have lost touch with reality’

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Shortly after the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat), the state agency responsible for producing official statistics on Turkey, released the "Labor Force Statistics" for June 2021, the Research Center of the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey (DİSK-AR) has criticized the TurkStat statistics by sharing a written statement about the issue.

"The TurkStat's data on narrow-defined unemployment and employment is far from reflecting the reality and raises some question marks," the DİSK-AR has said. The Research Center has argued that the methods insistently used by the TurkStat during the COVID-19 pandemic are far from reflecting the reality about the labor market on the grounds that they do not take the arrangements (of layoff ban, unpaid leave allowance and short time work allowance, etc.) peculiar to work life during the outbreak into consideration.

Referring to the increase in employment and drop in unemployment announced by the TurkStat, the DİSK-AR has stressed that this situation did not stem from the fact that employment was created. According to the DİSK-AR, it was mostly because the ones not working or in short-time employment returned to work with the full opening of the economy in June.

The DİSK-AR has underlined that the following points about the TurkStat statistics are questionable and need explanation:

"According to the TurkStat, in the period from May to June 2021, the number of unemployed decreased by 823 thousand people while employment increased by 602 thousand people. This data needs explanation.

"It is safe to say that the actual reason behind the increase in employment is not that employment was created, but that some of the people benefiting from pandemic allowances (short time, cash wage support) went back to their jobs or started working full time in June 2021.

"It is questionable that the number of unemployed people decreased while the number of registered unemployed people and the number of applications for unemployment pay were on the increase.

"A decrease of 222 thousand people in employment amid the full opening of the economy in June 2021 seems contrary to the natural flow of life." (KÖ/SD)

Click here for the full DİSK-AR report (in Turkish)