Seasonally adjusted unemployment in Turkey 'up 0.2 percent from May 2019'

Duvar English

Seasonally adjusted unemployment rose by 0.2 percent to 14 percent in May from the previous year, Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) revealed on Aug. 10, recording 75,000 more individuals without employment.

While some 4,166,000 people reported unemployment in May, the number of people with employment was 25,525,000, a 0.1 percent drop to 40.9 percent from the previous year.

Workforce participation remained at 47.6 percent, TÜİK reported, with 32,000 more participants for a total of 29,691,000.

Seasonally adjusted employment rose by 96,000 in agriculture, 107,000 in construction, while the service industry observed a major drop of 174,000 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, along with industrial production that lost 72,000 workers.

Meanwhile, unadjusted unemployment showed an increase of 56,000 people, but a drop of 331,000 from May 2019 for a total 3,826,000 people unemployed.

Unadjusted employment dropped by 2,411,000 people from May 2019 for some 25,858,000 people and 41.4 percent.

The service industry shrank by 1,622,000 workers from May 2019, but still constituted 55.6 percent of employment in May 2020.

The shrink in the service industry constituted for more than the losses in agriculture, industrial production and construction combined.

Unadjusted workforce participation dropped by 5.3 percent from May 2019 for a total of 29,684,000 people.

Public employment spikes

According to data from the Presidency's Strategy and Budget Directorate, public employment rose by 4.3 percent from the second half of 2019, reaching 4,767,000 workers.

The same data said that unemployment rose by 0.1 percent to 13.2 percent from the second half of 2019, while employment dropped by 4.8 percent to 45.9 percent.

The presidency also said that workforce participation rate dropped by 5.4 percent to 52.9 from the second half of 2019.