In September, the unemployment rate in Turkey was realized as 12.7% compared to the same month last year’s 13.8%, with a decrease of 1.1 points. When compared to the previous month, it is seen that the unadjusted unemployment rate decreased by 0.5 points. Seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was announced as 12.7%, decreasing by 1.1 points compared to the same month of the previous year and 0.4 points compared to the previous month. While the youth unemployment rate was 24.3% according to the refined data; Non-agricultural unemployment stood at 14.7%.
When we look at the comparable periods September 2019 - September 2020, it is seen that there is a 3-point decrease in the labor force participation rate between the relevant periods with adjusted data. The workforce, which was 32 million 464 thousand people in the similar period of 2019, was 31 million 144 thousand people in September 2020. The labor force participation rate has decreased from 52.6% to 49.6%. Again, looking at seasonally adjusted data; While the employment rate decreased by 2.1 points compared to the same period of the previous year and became 43.3%, there was an increase of 406 thousand people in seasonally adjusted employment compared to the previous month. In this period, seasonally adjusted employment decreased by 37 thousand in the agricultural sector, 57 thousand in the industrial sector, 15 thousand in the construction sector, and 191 thousand in the service sector, according to economic activity.
As the data is 3 months behind, we still monitor the unemployment rate for the 3Q20 period. Therefore, these are the September data. The strong growth in 3Q20 still has effects here. In the 3Q20 period, we saw that while the economy grew by 6.7%, investments increased by 22.5%. However, there is a point to be aware of about unemployment: That is the difference between those who are not actually employed or those who are unemployed for a long time and those who are deemed unemployed… Many employees have been out of the labor force due to pandemic conditions or are not actually at work. Official unemployment rates remain low for this reason. Under the conditions of the pandemic, the trend in the world is increasing unemployment. In our country, participation in the workforce and employment decrease. In the short term, growth will slow due to both financial tightening policies and the return of closing measures. Therefore, we can see an increase in the unemployment rate in the data showing the last months of the year. The continuation of employment measures and incentives will limit this increase. The end of the pandemic, the introduction of the vaccine and the increase in economic activity accordingly will improve labor conditions. However, wider-term solutions and policies should be implemented for problems such as inability to create employment in a structural sense, long-term unemployment and youth unemployment.
