Broad unemployment rate for young women in Turkey: 51.3 percent

* Photo: Mezopotamya Agency (MA)

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After the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) announced the official labor force statistics for the fourth quarter of last year, the Research Center of the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey (DİSK-AR) shared its labor force report today (February 16).

The report has stressed that the narrowly-defined unemployment data of TurkStat show a limited part of the real picture. It has criticized the official data for failing to give information about the quality of employment, adding that there is thus a need for alternative calculations.

Accordingly, the DİSK-AR has announced that it has started calculating the Registered and Full-Time Employment (RFTE), explaining that this data do not cover employment in the country as a whole, but indicate the rate of those in registered and full-time employment.

The Research Center has underlined that this new calculation aims to show the proportion of registered and full-time employment among the employment as a whole. It has shared the following data:

"According to TurkStat, seasonally adjusted employment increased by 2 million 854 thousand people between the 4th quarter of 2020 and the 4th quarter of 2021. In the 4th quarter of 2021, the number of seasonally adjusted employment was announced as 29 million 927 thousand.

"In the 4th quarter of 2021, the rate of seasonally adjusted employment increased by 3.8 percentage points to 46.7 percent.

"Calculated on the basis of TurkStat data, the RFTE rate stands at 31.9 percent. While the official employment rate has been announced as 29.2 percent for women, the RFTE rate is 17.5 percent for them. While the employment rate has been announced as 64.2 percent for men, the RFTE rate has been calculated as 46.5 percent for them."

According to the DİSK-AR report, only 20.4 million of the 64 million people in the employment age (15+) work in registered and full-time employment (RFTE) in Turkey. Moreover, only 5.6 million of the 32 million women in the employment age are a part of the RFTE.

Broad unemployment: 22.5 percent

Referring to TurkStat figures further, the DİSK-AR report has recalled that the official seasonally-adjusted narrowly-defined unemployment decreased by 250 thousand people in a year and was calculated as 3 million 780 thousand people in the 4th quarter of 2021.

Based on TurkStat data, the DİSK-AR has calculated the number of broad unemployment as 8 million 283 thousand 283 in the same period.

According to TurkStat, the seasonally adjusted broad unemployment rate dropped by 4.4 points when compared to the 4th quarter of 2020 and was calculated as 22.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2021.

TurkStat statistics have further shown that in 2021, the number of narrow unemployment was 1 million 548 thousand among women and 3 million 232 thousand among men. When the DİSK-AR calculates the gender-based broad unemployment based on TurkStat data, this number turns out to be 3 million 830 thousand for women and 4 million 440 thousand for men.

Recalling that TurkStat has announced the youth unemployment rate in the 4th quarter of 2021 as 21 percent, the DİSK-AR has cited its own calculations of the broad youth unemployment: 41.4 percent.

The Research Center has underlined that there is a 20.4-percent gap between the narrow and broad unemployment rates.

The DİSK-AR has also raised concerns that "unemployment among young women is in a graver situation" and shared the following data:

"In the 15-24 age group, the narrow unemployment rate is 17.6 percent and the broad unemployment rate is 35.4 percent for men. In the same age group, the narrow unemployment rate has been announced by TurkStat as 27.2 percent for women while the broad unemployment has been calculated as 51.3 percent. That being the case, the broad unemployment rate is higher than the narrow unemployment rate by 17.8 points for men and by 24.1 percent for women." (HA/SD)