Unemployment Rate in March: 13.2 Percent

* Photo: Pixabay - News & Graphs: TurkStat

The Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) has released "Labor Force Statistics" for March 2020, which is also the month when the first novel coronavirus (COVID-19) case was confirmed in Turkey.

According to the statistics shared by the Institute today (June 10), the number of unemployed persons aged 15 years old and over decreased by 573 thousand to 3 million 971 thousand persons in March 2020 when compared with the same period of the previous year.

The unemployment rate occurred as 13.2 percent with a 0.9 percentage point decrease. Non-agricultural unemployment rate occurred as 15 percent with a 1.1 percentage point decrease.

Employment rate: 42 percent

According to the TurkStat, the number of employed persons decreased by 1 million 662 thousand to 26 million 133 thousand persons in March 2020 when compared with the same period of the previous year. The employment rate occurred as 42 percent with a 3.4 percentage point decrease.

While the number of agricultural employment decreased by 538 thousand persons, construction decreased by 248 thousand and services decreased by 903 thousand, industry increased by 26 thousand persons.

According to the distribution of employment by sector; 16.4 percent was employed in agriculture, 21.1 percent in industry, 4.9 percent in construction and 57.6 percent was employed in services.

Labour force participation rate: 48.4 percent

The number of persons in the labour force realized as 30 million 104 thousand people with 2 million 235 thousand decrease in March 2020 when compared with the same period of the previous year. Labour force participation rate was 48.4 percent with 4.5 percentage point decrease.

The rate of unregistered employment: 29.1 percent

The ratio of persons working without any social security relating to the main job occurred 29.1 percent with a 4.8 percentage point decrease in March 2020 compared with the same period of the previous year.

The rate of unregistered employment realized as 18.6 percent with a 4.5 percentage point decrease in the non-agricultural sector compared to the same period of the previous year.

Unemployment for the 15-64 age group

For the 15-64 age group, the unemployment rate occurred as 13.5 percent with a 0.8 percentage point decrease and non-agricultural unemployment rate occurred as 15.1 percent with a 1.1 percentage point decrease compared to the same period of the previous year.

In this age group, employment rate occurred as 46.5 percent with a 3.5 percentage point decrease and labour force participation rate occurred as 53.7 percent with 4.7 percentage point decrease.

Youth unemployment: 24.6 percent

The youth unemployment rate between aged 15-24 years realized as 24.6 percent with a 0.6 percentage point decrease and the youth employment rate realized as 27.4 percent with a 5.1 percentage point decrease compared with the same period of the previous year.

In the same period, labour force participation rate realized as 36.3 percent with a 7.2 percentage point decrease. The rate of neither in employment nor in education realized as 27.9 percent with 4.2 percentage point increase compared with the same period of the previous year.

Seasonally adjusted unemployment: 13 percent

Seasonally adjusted unemployment rate realized as 13 percent with a 0.3 percentage point increase. The number of unemployed persons decreased by 33 thousand to 3 million 972 thousand persons.

Seasonally adjusted employment rate realized as 42.6 percent with a 1.7 percentage point decrease. The number of employed persons estimated as 26 million 512 thousand persons with 1 million 3 thousand persons decrease compared with the same period of the previous year.

Seasonally adjusted labour force participation rate was 49.0 percent with a 1.7 percentage point decrease. The number of labour force estimated as 30 million 484 thousand persons with 1 million 35 thousand persons decrease.

According to the seasonally adjusted number of employment by sectors, employment in agriculture decreased by 21 thousand persons, industry decreased by 85 thousand persons, construction decreased by 202 thousand persons and services decreased by 694 thousand persons. (SD)