There are only 3.7 million unemployed people in Turkey, according to TurkStat

* Photo: Kıvanç Özvardar (ILO) / flickr.com

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The Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) released the official Labor Force Statistics for November 2021 today (January 10)

According to TurkStat, when compared to the previous month, the number of unemployed people aged 15 years old and over increased by 39 thousand to 3 million 777 thousand people in November 2021. The unemployment rate stood at 11.2 percent without any change.

The same data has shown that the number of employed people increased by 228 thousand to 29 million 855 thousand people in November 2021 compared to the previous month. The employment rate stood at 46.6 percent with a 0.3 percentage point increase.

Youth unemployment

The youth unemployment rate in the 15-24 age group was 22.3 percent with 1.7 percentage point increase compared to the previous month and the employment rate was 33.2 percent with 0.1 point increase.

The labor force participation rate in this age group was 42.8 percent with 1.2 percentage point increase compared to the previous month.

Women's unemployment rate increased by 0.6 points when compared to October 2021. Only 11 million of the 32 million 280 thousand women are in the workforce. There are 1,597,000 unemployed women.

55 percent of the employment in services

In November 2021, the number of agricultural employment increased by 49 thousand people, industry increased by 73 thousand people, construction increased by 10 thousand and services increased by 96 thousand. According to the distribution of employment by sector; 17.1 percent was employed in agriculture, 21.6 percent was in industry, 6.1 percent was in construction and 55.2 percent was employed in services.

'Labor underutilization' rate: 22.1 percent

According to the TurkStat, in November 2021, the rate of composite measure of labor underutilization consisting of time-related underemployment, potential labor force and unemployment was 22.1 percent with a 0.7 percentage point decrease compared to the previous month.

While the combined rate of time-related underemployment and unemployment was measured as 15.4 percent by TurkStat, combined rate of unemployment and potential labor force was 18.2 percent.

Unregistered employment

In November 2021, the rate of unregistered employment, which indicates the share of employed people who are not affiliated with social security institution in total employment, stood at 29 percent with 0.7 percentage point decrease compared to the same month of the previous year.

The rate of unregistered employment in the non-agricultural sector was 17.9 percent with a 1.2 percentage point decrease. (HA/SD)