Unemployment rate in Turkey is 12.9 percent, says TurkStat

* Photo: Anadolu Agency (AA) - Archive

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The Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat), the state agency commissioned with producing official statistics on the country, released its "Labor Force Statistics" for November 2020 today (February 10).

According to the TurkStat figures, the number of unemployed persons aged 15 years old and over decreased by 303 thousand to 4 million 5 thousand persons in November 2020 when compared with last November.

While the unemployment rate of the country stood at 12.9 percent with 0.4 percentage point decrease, non-agricultural unemployment rate stood at 14.8 percent with 0.6 percentage point decrease.

Employment rate: 42.9 percent

According to the TurkStat, the number of employed persons decreased by 1 million 103 thousand to 27 million 66 thousand in November 2020 compared with the same period of the previous year. The employment rate stood at 42.9 percent with a 2.7 percentage point decrease.

In this period, the number of agricultural employment decreased by 361 thousand persons, industry decreased by 91 thousand persons and services decreased by 751 thousand persons while the number of employment in the construction sector increased by 101 thousand persons.

According to the distribution of employment by sector; 16.7 percent was employed in agriculture, 20.9 percent in industry, 6.2 percent was employed in construction and 56.2 percent was employed in services.

Labor force participation rate: 49.3 percent

The number of persons in the labor force was 31 million 71 thousand persons with 1 million 406 thousand persons decrease in the period of November 2020 compared with the same period of the previous year. Labor force participation rate was 49.3 percent with a 3.2 point decrease.

Rate of unregistered employment: 29.7 percent

The ratio of persons working without any social security relating to the main job stood at 29.7 percent with a 4.1 point decrease in November 2020 compared with the same period of the previous year.

The rate of unregistered employment was 19 percent with 3.8 percentage point decrease in the non-agricultural sector compared to last November.

Public sector employment on the increase

According to data gathered by the Presidency of Strategy and Budget, total public sector employment was 4 million 792 thousand persons with 3.2 percent percentage point increase in the fourth quarter of 2020 compared to the same period of the previous year.

Employment, unemployment in 15-64 age group

For the 15-64 age group in Turkey, the unemployment rate stood at 13.1 percent with 0.5 percentage point decrease and non-agricultural unemployment rate stood at 14.9 percent with 0.6 percentage point decrease compared to the same period of the previous year.

In this age group, the employment rate stood at 47.7 percent with 2.5 percentage point decrease and labor force participation rate stood at 55 percent with 3.1 percentage point decrease.

Youth unemployment rate: 25.4 percent

In November, the youth unemployment rate among the people aged 15-24 years was 25.4 percent with 0.9 percentage point increase and the youth employment rate was 29.6 percent with a 3 percentage point decrease compared with the same period of the previous year.

In the same period, the labor force participation rate was 39.6 percent with 3.6 percentage point decrease. The rate of neither in employment nor in education was 27.1 percent with 1.9 percentage point increase compared with the same period of the previous year.

Non-seasonally adjusted labor force indicators

According to the TurkStat, seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 12.9 percent without any change. The number of unemployed persons decreased by 8 thousand to 4 million 6 thousand persons.

Seasonally adjusted employment rate was 43.1 percent with 0.1 percentage point decrease. The number of employed persons estimated as 27 million 140 thousand persons with 24 thousand persons decrease compared with the same period of the previous year.

Seasonally adjusted labor force participation rate was 49.4 percent with 0.1 percentage point decrease. The number of labor force estimated as 31 million 146 thousand persons with 32 thousand persons decrease.

According to the seasonally adjusted number of employment by sectors, employment in industry increased by 83 thousand persons while agriculture decreased by 62 thousand persons, construction decreased by 6 thousand persons and services decreased by 38 thousand persons. (SD)