Union report: Women's broad unemployment rate nears 50 percent

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Having already increased before Covid-19, women unemployment in Turkey has become more severe with the epidemic, according to a report by the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey Research Center (DİSK-AR).

"Women have withdrawn faster from the labor market and women's employment has shrunk faster. Only one out of every four women in working age is in employment. The despair about looking for a job among women is increasing," said Deniz Beyazbulut, a member of the DİSK-AR team that prepared the report.

Between March 2019 and March 2020, the women workforce decreased by 11 percent and women's employment decreased by 9 percent, according to the report. The broad unemployment rate for women stood at 45.3 percent during the pandemic.

In the same period, the number of employed decreased by 1.66 million to 26.13 million. The number of employed men decreased by 858,000 to 18.11 million whereas the number of employed women decreased by 804,000 to 8.1 million.

In one year, the number of employed decreased by 6 percent. The decrease was 4.5 percent among men and 9 percent among women. Women's employment rate decreased by 3 percent to 25.5 percent.

"Women are desperate"

"It is known that women's unemployment tends to increase during general crisis periods. There has already been such a trend for women since August 2018. The increase in women unemployment accelerated with the pandemic process," Beyazbulut noted.

"We see that the two variables we use to calculate broad unemployment for Covid-19 have increased recently: Those who are ready to work while not seeking jobs and the desperate ones.

"In the past year, the number of women who lost hope and are not seeking a job has increased by 209,000. The number of women who are not seeking jobs while being ready to work has increased by 353,000."

Precarious employment

Considering the increase in women who are not at work, the increase in time-related underemployment and working times, it can be said that short work and unpaid leave are more common for women, Beyazbulut noted.

"In the Covid-19 period, narrowly defined women unemployment seems to have decreased in the data due to women looking for jobs less, but in reality, it is possible to say that this situation has exaggerated the broad unemployment and loss of employment of women much more than men.

"The report covers an assessment of the women workforce during the pandemic period. Sector-based data on the employed are not included in the report.

"However, according to a field study conducted in 2017, it is possible to say that precarious forms of employment are more common among women. Nevertheless, with these findings, it seems that there is a need to consider a study related to the fields in which women work."

Policies for women employment

"Women have withdrawn faster from the labor market and women's employment has shrunk faster. Only one out of every four women in working age is in employment. The despair about looking for a job among women is increasing.

"We see the effect of the changing ways of work due to the effect of the pandemic. We see that the number of women who are not at work has increased by five times in the past year.

"With the Covid-19 effect, broad unemployment was calculated as 45.3 percent. It is clear that the global outbreak that had such effects in its first month has caused and will cause more severe losses.

"Women's participation in the workforce, which was far behind OECD countries, declined with the pandemic.

"Many international institutions and NGOs are conducting and publishing studies on women's income, status in the workforce and unemployment. These studies may cause pressure on governments and help create a policy document. But there is no such agenda in Turkey. Our demand is that policies to be planned and implemented about the effects of the Covid-19 crisis on the women workforce." (EMK/VK)