Union disputes official figures, says broad unemployment, job losses exceed 14 million

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Broad unemployment and job losses in Turkey reached 14.2 million in June, according to the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey Research Center (DİSK-AR).

The report was released yesterday (September 11) at the same time as the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) report.

The DİSK calculates the number of unemployed according to the broad definition of unemployment, whereas the TurkStat, the country's statistical authority, uses the "narrow definition."

According to the TurkStat figures, the number of unemployed in June was 4,1 million in June, decreasing by 152,000 from the previous month. The unemployment rate stood at 13.4 percent with a 0.4 percentage point increase.

"The narrow unemployment rate that the TurkStat announced is far from reflecting the earthquake caused by Covid-19. Because of the layoff ban, narrow unemployment data does not reflect the real picture in the labor market," said the DİSK-AR.

As layoffs have been banned since March, millions of employees receive either short-time work or unpaid leave allowances.

Broad unemployment and job losses were 17.2 million (50 percent) in May and 9.75 million (28.7 percent) in April, according to DİSK-AR reports.

The DİSK-AR notes that it uses the International Labor Organization's (ILO) "full-time equivalent loss of jobs" method to calculate the loss of jobs and unemployment.

Some findings of the DİSK-AR study:

• The broad unemployment was 10.2 million (28.9 percent).
• At least 5.84 million equivalent job losses occurred due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
• Employment decreased by 1.98 million in a year.
• The employment rate decreased to 42.4 percent.
• The number of people at work decreased by 3.83 million in a year.
• The number of "desperate unemployed" increased from 583,000 to 1,37 million in a year.
• Women's workforce decreased by 9.9 percent, women's employment decreased by 8.7 percent. (HA/VK)