Turkey has the highest NEET rate among OECD countries

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Marking the May 19 Commemoration of Atatürk, Youth and Sports Day, the Confederation of Revolutionary Trade Unions of Turkey Research Center (DİSK-AR) has released a bulletin on youth unemployment in the country.

The report compiles data from the OECD and the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) to reveal the extent of the problem.

Here are some highlights:

• The share of young people who are not in employment, education or training (NEET) in Turkey is 28.8 percent, the highest in the OECD.

• In 2019, the average NEET rate of the OECD countries was 12.8 percent.

• According to TurkStat, the country's NEET rate was 24.7 percent at the end of the first quarter of the year. It was 17.7 percent for men and 32.1 percent for women,

• Turkey ranks 8th in youth unemployment among the 36 OECD
countries.

• The global youth unemployment rate was 13.6 percent at the end of 2019. However, one in six young people lost their jobs during the pandemic.

• At the end of the first quarter of this year, Turkey's narrow unemployment rate in the 15-24 group was 25.3 percent, according to Turkstat. It was 22 percent for men and 31.7 percent for women.

• The seasonally adjusted broad unemployment rate, or the idle workforce as termed by the Turkstat, was 27.8 percent.

• The number of unemployed according to the broad definition at the end of March was 7.36 million, up by 2.53 million in a year, according to DİSK-AR calculations based on TurkStat data.

• Women's employment was affected more by the pandemic than men's. Some 4.35 million women were unemployed in the first quarter, with an increase of 1.16 million in a year.

• Men's seasonally adjusted broad unemployment rate was 23.6 percent with 5.5 million unemployed people.

• The reasons for the increase in broad unemployment were underemployment due to time reasons and the increase in the potential workforce, the DİSK-AR noted. (HA/VK)