Female employment rate in service sector reaches nearly 60 pct

ISTANBUL

The female employment rate in the service sector in the country has reached 59.6 percent, while the participation of women in the labor force has increased significantly in all sectors, according to a report by Marmara University.

The report on Women’s Employment and Entrepreneurship in Türkiye covered 613 women entrepreneurs in 80 provinces of the country, examining indicators such as labor force participation and employment and unemployment rates of women between 2004-2021.

It revealed that the service sector is the area with the highest female labor force participation rate. While it was 59.6 percent in this field, the service sector is followed by agriculture at 22.6 percent, industry at 16.7 percent and construction at 0.9 percent.

It was pointed out in the report that the development of women’s employment and entrepreneurship would have positive reflections on Türkiye’s social and economic future.

However, the report also emphasized that the economic contraction that started with the pandemic had a negative impact on women’s employment rates.

It said women in Türkiye face more “invisible barriers” in business life than the OECD average.

Compared to OECD countries, where women’s labor force participation rate is 52.4 percent, women in Türkiye are also disadvantaged in terms of wages, according to the report.

Furthermore, while the unemployment rate for young men has increased by 16.9 percent since 2014, the unemployment rate for young women has increased by 40.7 percent in the same period.

The research also examined the labor force participation rates of women on the basis of regions in Türkiye. Accordingly, the highest female participation rate of 41.6 percent was in the region covering the Black Sea provinces of Ordu, Giresun, Trabzon, Rize and Artvin, while the region with the lowest employment of women is southeastern Anatolia.

The reasons given by the women participating in the research on why they are not included in the labor force were listed as “being busy with housework,” “education” and “retirement.”