Turkey's broad unemployment rate hits 27 percent as women affected much worse

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Turkey's broad unemployment rate in October 2020 was 27 percent, up from 20.9 percent in the same month in the previous year, according to the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey Research Center (DİSK-AR).

When the job losses caused by the Covid-19 pandemic is added, the broad unemployment rate increases to 29.8 percent, says the report.

The DİSK-AR says the official employment figures and the narrow unemployment rate announced by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) doesn't reflect the reality and releases monthly reports based on the International Labor Organization (ILO) methodology.

During the pandemic, women's employment was affected much more than men's as the broad unemployment rate for women was 35.8 percent in October, the report says. When the job losses caused by the pandemic are added, this rate increases to 41 percent.

"Covid-19 has increased the need for care work (patient care, child care, elderly care, home hygiene). Because a solution could not be found for this situation, women are out of employment more," the report explains. "On the other hand, difficulties in businesses cause women to leave jobs more than men in the Covid-19 period. As a result, women's domestic workload increased much more in the covid-19 period."

Here are some highlights of the report:

• The number of unemployed increased by a million compared to October 2019 and reached 10.68 million.
• The broad workforce of the country was 35.88 million and the equivalent employment loss caused by Covid-19 was 2.24 million.
• In one year, the women workforce decreased by 863,000 to 9.94 million and the men workforce decreased by 425,000 to 21.51 million.
• The total workforce decreased by 1.28 million, from 32.74 million to 31.45 million.
• The workforce participation rate decreased from 53 percent to 50 percent in a year.
• Due to unpaid leave practices introduced after the start of the pandemic, the number of people at work decreased by 4.4 percent in a year. The number of women at work decreased by 10.7 and the number of men at work decreased by 4.8 percent.
• With short-time work and unpaid leaves becoming widespread, the average weekly work time decreased from 45.3 hours in October 2019 to 44.6 hours in October 2020.
• The number of people who don't seek jobs but are ready to work increased by 1.33 million in a year.
• The number of desperate unemployed people increased by 843,000, or 122.5 percent, in a year. The increase rate was 168.4 percent for women and 98.3 percent for men.
• Men's broad unemployment rate increased from 16.1 percent in October 2019 to 22.2 percent in October 2020 and women's broad unemployment rate increased from 27.2 percent in October 2019 to 35.8 percent in October 2020.
• When the job losses caused by the pandemic are added, women's broad unemployment rate increases to 41 percent.
• The number of unemployed according to the narrow definition was 4 million with 1.54 million women and 2.46 million men.
• The number of unemployed revised with the effect of the pandemic was 10.68 million with 5.13 million women and 5.61 million men.
• Women's workforce participation rate decreased from 34.6 percent in October to 31.3 percent in October 2020.
• Men's workforce participation rate decreased from 71.9 percent in October 2019 to 69 percent in October 2020. (HA/VK)