Turkey’s unemployment rate increases to 4-year high

ISTANBUL - Doğan News Agency

DAILY NEWS Photo

Turkey’s unemployment rate rose to a four-year high of 10.9 percent in December 2014, up from 10.7 percent in November 2014 and 10 percent in December 2013, according to the Labor Force Statistics data released by the Turkish Statistics Institute (TÜİK) on March 16.

The non-agricultural unemployment rate rose to 12.9 percent, while the youth unemployment rate for the 15-24 age group rose to over 20 percent at 20.2 percent and unemployment in the 15-64 age group increased to 11.2 percent over the same period.

The rise in unemployment was caused by the slowing down of economic growth and the rise in the participation to the labor force, according to analysts.

Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan said on March 13 that Turkey’s 2014 growth rates would be announced at below 3 percent. The official growth numbers for the last year will be announced soon.
“We need to set higher growth targets, but we can only achieve this by making structural reforms, not by means of temporary financial and monetary policies,” he said.

Turkey’s growth potential was around 3 percent with its own dynamics, but each increase in exports makes a positive contribution to the country’s growth, Babacan said.

The total number of unemployed individuals aged 15 years old and over was 3.1 million individuals, while the unemployment rate stood at 10.2 percent for men and at 12.6 percent for women, according to the TÜİK data.

The number of employed individuals aged 15 years old and over was 25.6 million individuals in December 2014 and the employment rate stood at 44.7 percent. The employment rate was 63.6 percent for men and 26.2 percent for women. 

Agricultural employment stood at 5 million individuals and non-agricultural employment stood at 20.6 million individuals in this period.

Of those who were employed in this period, 19.5 percent were employed in agriculture, 20.5 percent were employed in industry, 7.1 percent were employed in construction and 52.8 percent were employed in the service sector.

The labor force participation rate stood at 50.2 percent, with 28.8 million individuals in December 2014. The rate was realized at 70.8 percent for men and 30 percent for women.