Turkey’s wider definition unemployment reaches 8.9 million people- 27.4 percent of the labor force

The Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat), announced the “Labor Force Statistics” for April 2021.

Accordingly, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate is at 13.9% in April with 0.9 percentage point increase. The number of unemployed people (aged 15 years old and over) reached 4,51 million rising by 275K in a month’s time. 

In April 2021, the rate of composite measure of labor underutilization (time-related underemployment, potential labor force and unemployment) was 27.4%with 1.7 percentage point increase compared to the previous month. While the combined rate of time-related underemployment and unemployment realized as 19.9%, combined rate of unemployment and potential labor force realized as 21.9%.

The announced employment details heavily contradict with Turley’s 7% GDP growth recorded in 1Q21 and the expected circa 15% GDP growth for 2Q21.  

Seasonally adjusted supplementary labour force indicators, April 2019-April 2021

– Employment rate 44.2%: The number of employed people at 28 million decreased by 193K in April 2021 compared to March bringing the employment rate to 44.2% with a 0.4 percentage point decrease.

– Labor participatipon rate 51.3%: with 32.6 million people in the labor force the monthly change was 83K people in April 2021; hence the labor force participation rate was up 0.1 percentrage points to 51.3%.

– Women’s unemployment rate at 15.9%: As of April 2021, women unemployment rate decreased by 0.4 percentage points to 15.9% while the employment rate for Turkey’s women remains very low at 27.4%. As more than 21 million women rmain outside the workforce only 1.7 million women are employed.  

– Youth unemployment rate at 25.6%: For the 15-24 age group, unemployment rate is 25.6% with a 0.1 percentage point increase over the March level.  The employment rate was up by 0.5 percentage points to 32% while the labor force participation rate in this age group at 43% is 0.8 percentage points higher compared to the previous month.