Unemployment rate at 12.9 percent in November 2020

ANKARA

Turkey’s unemployment rate was 12.9 percent with a 0.4-percentage-point decrease year on year in November 2020, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) announced on Feb. 10.

The number of unemployed people aged 15 and over decreased 303,000 to 4 million as of November 2020 compared to the same month of 2019, according to the institute.

In November 2019, the country’s unemployment rate was 13.3 percent, with 4.3 million unemployed people aged 15 and above.

On the other hand, the employment rate also declined 2.7 percent to 42.9 percent in November 2020.

The number of people in the labor force was calculated around 31 million in the same month, a decline of 1.4 million people compared to November 2019. Thus, the labor force participation rate was 49.3 percent with a 3.2 percentage point decrease year on year.

The labor force participation rate for men dropped by 3.2 percentage points to 68.4 percent, while it stood at 30.6 percent for women with an annual decline of 3.3 percentage points.

The distribution of employment by sector was 56.2 percent in the services sector, 20.9 percent in industry, 16.7 percent in agriculture, and 6.2 percent in construction, according to TÜİK data.

The non-agricultural unemployment rate also fell 0.6 percentage points to 14.8 percent, year on year in November 2020.

The youth unemployment rate between ages 15-24 was 25.4 percent with a 0.9-percentage-point rise.

The rate of unregistered employment – people working without social security related to their principal occupation – was 29.7 percent in November 2020, down by 4.1 points on a yearly basis.

Meanwhile, the unemployment rate in 37 member states of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) was stable at 6.9 percent in December 2020, the body announced yesterday.