'Over 10 million people are unemployed in Turkey'

* Photo: Mezopotamya Agency (MA)

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After the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat), Turkey's state agency producing official statistics on the country, shared the Labor Force Statistics for November, the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey Research Center (DİSK-AR) has issued its own report.

The DİSK-AR has underlined that unemployment "has skyrocketed" in Turkey, where the broad unemployment rate has hit 28.8 percent.

CLICK - Unemployment rate in Turkey is 12.9 percent, says TurkStat

In a press release, the TurkStat announced that the number of unemployed persons aged 15 years old and over decreased by 303 thousand to 4 million 5 thousand people in November 2020 when compared with last November. Accordingly, it stated that the unemployment rate of the country stood at 12.9 percent with a 0.4 percentage point decrease.

'Grave picture persists'

Releasing a statement against this backdrop, the DİSK has said reminded the public that the statistics shared by the TurkStat for November is about a period when the outbreak started to subside after its most intense months of April and May 2020 and there was a reopening of the economy.

Accordingly, the confederation has underlined that "the grave picture persists in both employment and unemployment."

Referring further to the statistics of the state agency, the DİSK has reiterated that the narrow unemployment rate and numbers announced by the institute do not reflect the destruction caused by the COVID-19 pandemic on employment; on the contrary, it covers up this destruction.

"Due to the lay-off ban in effect since April 2020, the narrow/ standard unemployment data of the TurkStat does not reflect the real picture," the statement has read, adding that "the TurkStat data are veiled data" which are "entirely caused by the deficiency of its calculation technique."

'1.6 million have lost hope for finding a job'

Against this background, the DİSK has shared its own labor force statistics for November 2020. Some highlights from the report are as follows:

• Broad unemployment rate was 28.8 percent in November.
• The number of people falling within the scope of broad unemployment was 10 million 382 thousand.
• Revised with the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) effect, the number of broad unemployment was 11 million 768 thousand people.
• Employment declined by 1 million 103 thousand people in a year.
• The number of people who were on the job decreased by 2 million 217 thousand people in a year
• Women's (broad) unemployment rate was 37.7 percent.
• Youth (broad) unemployment rate was 43.5 percent.
• The number of unemployed who lost hopes was 1 million 674 thousand.
• The monthly average loss of employment due to COVID-19 was 4 million 388 thousand.

(SD)

* Click here for the full report (in Turkish)