Turkey’s unemployment rate has reached up to 10,8 percent in July according to the Turkish Statistical Institute, with 3,53 millions of unemployed people around the country.
Despite the government’s economic “precautions” to win the elections in late June and the distorted methods of calculation for workforce data, the unemployment rate has considerably risen.
The rate has increased by 0,6 percent in comparison to the previous month and by 0,1 compared to the last year. However, the unemployment rate has escalated as high as up to 12,9 when non-agricultural employment of 0,8 percent is included. The non-agricultural unemployment rate has further increased among female people, reached up to 18,9 percent.
BROAD UNEMPLOYMENT IS RISING
It seems that the impacts of the economic crisis have clearly reflected upon the data of broad unemployment, which has been in an increasing trend since the last year. The broad unemployment rate for July was 17,9 that had increased by 0,9 compared to the previous months. Therefore, the number of unemployed people has reached up to 6,31 million from the broad unemployment definition.
The broad unemployment rate has further escalated among the women, as high as up to 26,1 percent. Considering that female workers are mainly dismissed compared to the male ones during crises periods, the number of unemployed women within broad definition has increased to 3,18 million, the highest level ever.
EMPLOYMENT IS REDUCING IN CONSTRUCTION AND AGRICULTURE
As the construction sector has become one of the main sectors that directly feel the impact of the crisis, the shrinkage in this sector can be observed in employment figures. As Turkey’s total employment has increased around 500 thousands of people in the last year, the employment shrinkage in the construction sector has risen to 164 thousand. The share of the construction sector in total employment has increasingly reduced to 6,9 percent this year.
The agricultural employment has also reduced in the same period, decreased by around 250 thousands of people, while the share of agricultural employment has reduced by 1,2 percent in comparison to the same month in 2017.
UNEMPLOYMENT IS TO RISE
Turkey’s AKP government declared a ‘New Economic Program’ last month, forecasting the unemployment rate for 2018 as 11,3 percent. However, the rate of unemployment should further rise within the rest of 2018 so that this forecast could be realized for this year.
In other words, according to the program, which mainly aims to give “optimistic” messages to domestic and foreign capitalists, the unemployment rate can possibly rise to the level of 14-15 percent at the end of the year.
The inconsistent goals of the economic program reveal that the government appears to be very “optimistic” about the unemployment forecasts. The unemployment rate may sharply increase than expected within the rest of the year amid the economic slowdown.
