Turkey’s unemployment rate on the decrease, according to state agency

* Graph: TurkStat

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The Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat), the state agency responsible for producing official statistics on the country, released the "Labor Force Statistics" for June 2021 earlier today (August 10).

According to the state agency, the number of unemployed persons aged 15 years old and over decreased by 823 thousand to 3 million 399 thousand persons in June 2021 in Turkey compared to the previous month.

The TurkStat has announced that the unemployment rate stood at 10.6 percent with a 2.5 percentage point decrease.

NOTE: Introduced in Turkey in April 2020 to curb the negative effects of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, the layoff ban was lifted on July 1, 2021, which means that the labor force statistics shared by the TurkStat today cover a period when this ban was still in effect.

Seasonally adjusted employment: 44.9 percent

The number of employed persons increased by 602 thousand to 28 million 586 thousand persons in the period of June 2021 compared to the previous month, according to the TurkStat. The employment rate occurred as 44.9 percent with 0.9 percentage point increase.

The number of persons in the labour force was 31 million 984 thousand persons, marking a decrease of 222 thousand persons in June 2021 compared to the previous month. Labour force participation rate was 50.2 percent with 0.5 percentage point decrease.

Youth unemployment rate: 22.7 percent

The youth unemployment rate in the 15-24 age group was 22.7 percent with 0.2 percentage point decrease compared to the previous month and the employment rate was 32.6 percent with 0.4 percentage point increase. The labour force participation rate in this age group was 42.3 percent with 0.6 percentage points increase compared to the previous month.

In June 2021, the number of agricultural employment increased by 163 thousand persons, industry increased by 296 thousand, construction increased by 8 thousand and services increased by 136 thousand persons. According to the distribution of employment by sector; 17.2 percent was employed in agriculture, 21.8 percent was employed in industry, 6.4 percent was employed in construction and 54.5 percent was employed in services.

Labor underutilization rate: 22.4 percent

According to the TurkStat, in June 2021, the rate of composite measure of labour underutilization consisting of time-related underemployment, potential labour force and unemployment was 22.4 percent with 4.7 percentage point decrease compared to the previous month.

While the combined rate of time-related underemployment and unemployment stood at 14.6 percent in June, the combined rate of unemployment and potential labour force stood at 18.8 percent.

Unregistered employment

The TurkStat figures have shown that in June 2021, the rate of unregistered employment, which indicates the share of employment who are not affiliated with social security institution in total employment, stood at 29.5 percent, marking a 2.2 percentage point decrease compared to June 2021. The rate of unregistered employment in the non-agricultural sector was 17.3 percent with a 2.1 percentage point decrease compared to last June. (SD)

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