Turkish unemployment falls unlike EU countries

ISTANBUL – Hürriyet Daily News

Urban unemployment was 11.6 percent in March, to official figures say. The number of employed people increased to 23.8 million, the same data says. DAILY NEWS photo, Hasan ALTINIŞIK

Turkey’s March unemployment rate dropped 0.9 percent year-over-year to 9.9 percent from 10.8 percent, according to data released June 15 by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK). In Feb. the unemployment rate had been 10.4 percent. 

Urban unemployment was 11.6 percent and rural unemployment was 6.4 percent in the given period and the number of people without jobs decreased to 2.6 million, whereas the number of employed persons rose to 23.8 million from 23.2 million, according to the same data. 

“In the coming period we don’t anticipate a sharp drop in the unemployment rate and expect it to continue at these levels,” said Oyak Investment Economist Gülay Elif Girgin to Anatolia news agency. According to Girgin, the March unemployment figures are the best seen so far this year, but the uncertainty in Europe has begun to impact economic activity in Turkey especially in view of exports. 

The number of people employed in the agriculture sector decline by 173,000 people in the March period, while non-agriculture employment went up by 704,000 people. In March, 23.6 percent of people were employed in the agriculture sector, 19.8 percent in the industrial sector, 5.9 percent in construction and 50.7 percent in the services sector. Service sector employment was up 2.3 point from March 2011, but employment in the agriculture sector was down 1.2 points, down 0.8 points in the industrial sector and down 0.3 points in the construction sector.

Total employment in Turkey in March was down to 48.6 percent from 49 percent a year earlier. 

Some 71 percent of those employed in March were male and 57.3 percent of these had less than a high school education. 

Unregistered employment year-over-year was down 3.8 percent to 37.5 percent. Unregistered employment in the March 2012 period was 81.8 percent down from 82.6 percent in March 2011. Similarly, unregistered employment in the non-agriculture sector also fell from 27.7 percent in March 2011 to 23.9 percent in March 2012.