DİSK-AR: 8.5 million people are unemployed in Turkey

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There were 8.5 million unemployed people in Turkey as of January, according to the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey Research Center (DİSK-AR), which releases its own figures every month following the announcement of the official unemployment statistics.

The number of the unemployed rose by 1.1 million compared to the pre-pandemic period, according to the broad definition of unemployment, the DİSK-AR stated.

The Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) yesterday (March 10) announced the unemployment rate as 11.4 percent according to the narrow definition and 22.9 percent according to the broad definition.

The broad unemployment rate was 19.7 percent (4.7 million people) among men and 28.8 percent among women (3.7 million people).

The big gap between the narrow and broad unemployment rates was because of the layoff ban in effect between April 2020 and July 2021, DİSK-AR noted. Those who were not working but not dismissed either were not included in the narrow unemployment statistics.

The DİSK-AR suggested that working time should be reduced without decreasing the wages so that more people can work. Weekly working time should be reduced from 45 to 37.5 hours, it said. (HA/VK)