Employment Decreases as Unemployment Rate Stands at 14 Percent in August

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The number of unemployed persons aged 15 years old and over increased by 980 thousand to 4 million 650 thousand persons in the period of August 2019 compared to the same period of the previous year, the Turkish Statistical Institution (TurkStat) announced today (November 15).

The unemployment rate stood at 14.0 percent with a 2.9 percentage point increase.

In the same period, non-agricultural unemployment rate stood at 16.7 percent with 3.5 percentage point increase. While youth unemployment rate including persons aged 15-24 was 27.4 percent with 6.6 percentage point increase, the unemployment rate for persons aged 15-64 stood at 14.3 percent with 2.9 percentage point increase.

Non-seasonally adjusted main labor force indicators, August 2018, August 2019

Employment rate stood at 46.3 percent

The number of employed persons decreased by 789 thousand to 28 million 529 thousand persons in the period of August 2019 compared with the same period of the previous year. The employment rate stood at 46.3 percent with 2 percentage point decrease.

The number of agricultural employment decreased by 94 thousand persons and the number of non-agricultural employment decreased by 695 thousand persons in this period. According to the distribution of employment by sector; 19.6 percent was employed in agriculture, 19.5 percent was in industry, 5.5 percent was employed in construction and 55.4 percent was employed in services. Employment in agriculture increased by 0.2 percentage point, services increased by 1.4 percentage point while construction decreased by 1.6 percentage point. Industry was realized without any change compared with the same period of the previous year.

Labor force participation rate stood at 53.9 percent

The number of persons in the labor force realized 33 million 180 thousand persons with 191 thousand persons increase in the period of August 2019 compared with the same period of the previous year. labor force participation rate (LFPR) was 53.9 percent with 0.4 percentage point decrease. LFPR for male was 73.2 percent with 0.9 percentage point decrease and the rate for females was 35 percent with 0.1 percentage point increase with the same period of the previous year.

The rate of unregistered employment stood at 36.1 percent

The ratio of persons working without any social security relating to the main job occurred 36.1 percent with 2.1 percentage point increase in the period of August 2019 compared with the same period of the previous year. In the non-agricultural sector, the rate of unregistered employment stood at 23.4 percent with 1.3 percentage point increase compared to the same period of the previous year.

Public sector employment increased by 7.4 percent

According to data gathered by Presidency of Strategy and Budget, total public sector employment stood at 4 million 612 thousand persons with 7.4 percent percentage point increase in the third quarter of 2019 compared to the same period of the previous year.

Seasonally adjusted employment rate stood at 45.6 percent and unemployment rate stood at 14.2 percent

Seasonally adjusted employed persons increased by 66 thousand persons and occurred 28 million 68 thousand persons compared with the previous period. Seasonally adjusted employment rate occurred 45.6 percent with 0.1 percentage point increase.

The number of seasonally adjusted unemployed persons decreased by 18 thousand to 4 million 642 thousand persons in the period of August 2019 compared with the previous period. The unemployment rate was 14.2 percent with 0.1 percentage point decrease.

Seasonally adjusted labor force participation rate was 53.1 percent without any change compared with the previous period. According to the number of employment by sector, employment in services increased by 141 thousand persons while industry decreased by 49 thousand persons, construction decreased by 24 thousand persons and agriculture decreased by 3 thousand persons.

Seasonally adjusted main labor force indicators, August 2018 - August 2019

(HA/VK)