Eurostat published a report recently, saying Turkey ranks first among the EU countries and candidate countries with the highest rate of young women who are neither employed nor schooled. The report reveals that 30,8 percent of the youth between ages 18-24 in Turkey are neither employed nor schooled.
The research included 34 countries, comprised of the EU countries in addition to Macedonia, Norway, Iceland and Switzerland. Macedonia has the highest number of youth who are neither employed nor schooled, with 32 percent.
TURKEY RANKS FIRST IN FIGURES ON YOUNG WOMEN
The research says Turkey has the highest number of young women population between ages 18-24. 43,6 percent of these women are neither employed nor schooled. The same rate for young men in Turkey is 18,2 percent.
With 32,2 percent, Macedonia has the lowest rate in terms of the participation of young women to education and labour force.
ITALY RANKS FIRST IN THE EU
The EU percentage for unemployed and unschooled youth is 14,3, the report says. 13,9 percent of the young men in the EU, and 14,7 percent of the young women are neither employed nor schooled.
Italy ranks first among the EU countries with 25,7 percent of youth who are neither employed nor schooled. The rate of young women compared to men is slightly low. 25,4 percent of young women and 26,1 of young men are neither employed nor schooled in Italy.
Among the EU countries, Holland has the lowest rate of youth who are neither employed nor schooled with 5,3 percent. Iceland, a non-EU country, ranks as the most successful country in the general ranking with a percent of 4,1.
2,9 MILLION YOUTH WHO ARE NEITHER EMPLOYED NOR SCHOOLED
According to the figures of Turkey’s Statistical Institution (TÜİK), 19 percent of youth in Turkey are unemployed. The figures of TÜİK include youth between ages 15-24. That’s why the figures of TÜİK with 24 percent is below that of Eurostat.
TÜİK data for 2017 show that 2 million and 872 thousand youth between ages 15-24 are neither employed nor schooled. 1,9 million of them are young women. Youth with an education level below high school who are neither employed nor schooled is 1,7 million.
The unemployment rate has been in the double digits in Turkey since June 2016. However, official unemployment statistics are based on a narrow definition of unemployment. When disguised unemployment (taking into account people who are not included in the labour force and underemployed) is added to open unemployment (official statistics), the true unemployment rate increases substantially. While the official unemployment rate was 10.9% in 2017, the true unemployment rate was 18.2%. With the broader definition, the size of the unemployed population reaches 6 million and 200 thousand.
