‘9.6 million people are unemployed in Turkey’

* Photo: Mezopotamya Agency (MA)

Click to read the article in Turkish

After the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat), the government agency commissioned with producing official statistics on the country, shared the Labor Force Statistics for August 2020 yesterday (November 10), the Research Center of the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey (DİSK-AR) has released its own report.

CLICK - TurkStat: Unemployment rate decreased in August

Calculating broad unemployment rate in the country on a monthly basis, the DİSK-AR has indicated that the 13.2-percent unemployment rate announced by the TurkStat does not reflect the truth.

According to the DİSK-AR report on employment and unemployment in Turkey in August, the broad unemployment rate was 26.7 percent and the number of unemployed was 9 million 577 in August.

'TurkStat data does not reflect the real situation'

The statement released by the research center has underlined that the narrow unemployment rate and numbers announced by the TurkStat do not reflect the destruction caused by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on employment; on the contrary, it covers up this destruction.

"Due to the lay-off ban in effect since April 2020, the narrow/ standard unemployment data of the TurkStat does not reflect the real picture," the statement has read, adding that the figures announced by the government agency "are entirely caused by the deficiency of its calculation technique."

Reiterating that "the TurkStat's technique of measuring unemployment is far from reflecting the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak," the DİSK-AR statement has briefly shared the following information:

"The TurkStat considers only the ones who had looked for a job within 4 weeks before the reference week to be unemployed. In fact, even though they cannot work due to the short-time working allowance and unpaid leave allowance that have been introduced in place of lay-offs, millions of workers are still shown to be employed.

"According to the method of the TurkStat, the workers who receive short-time working allowance or unpaid leave allowance are not considered to be unemployed as they are not looking for work. According to the Turkish Employment Agency (İŞKUR), nearly 3.5 million workers are currently receiving short-time working allowance and 2 million 45 thousand workers are getting unpaid leave allowance (money wage support). However, the TurkStat considers them to be employed.

"On the other side, since a vast majority of the ones who cannot receive short-time working allowance and the informal workers or the self-employed who have lost their jobs do not tend to look for a job due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they have left the labor market. The TurkStat has not considered them to be unemployed, either."

'Women more affected by COVID-19'

Against this backdrop, the DİSK has shared its own labor for statistics for August 2020. Some highlights from the report are as follows:

• The devastation of the labor market by COVID-19 and economic crisis continued in August 2020 as well.
• By using the methods of the International Labor Organization (ILO), the DİSK-AR calculated the real job loss and unemployment caused by COVID-19.
• Revised with the COVID-19 effect, the number of broad unemployment and job loss was 10.5 million in August 2020.
• The revised broad unemployment and job loss rate has been calculated as 29.3 percent.
• COVID-19 caused the equivalent of at least 2 million 159 new job losses in August 2020.
• Broad unemployment rate was 26.7 percent.
• Employment fell by 975 thousand people in a year.
• Employment rate dropped to 43.9 percent.
• The number of those who are on the job has decreased by 1 million 471 thousand people over the last year.
• The number of hopeless unemployed people increased from 613 thousand to 1 million 331 thousand.
• Women are more affected by COVID-19: Women's labor force decreased by 7 percent and women's employment by 5.1 percent.

(HA/SD)

Click here for the report (in Turkish)