Turkish unemployment rate rises to 10.1 pct after slow economy and unregistered migrants begin work

ANKARA

Turkish unemployment rose to double digits in August after months of slow economic activity and unregistered Syrian migrants entering the workforce in Turkey. 

The unemployment rate was announced 10.1 percent in the August period, which comprised the figures of July, August and September, from 9.8 percent in the July period, and was unchanged from the same period of 2014, according to data from the Turkish Statistics Agency (TÜİK).

The non-farm unemployment rate stood at 12.4 percent in August, up from 12 percent in July and 12.3 percent a year earlier, according to TÜİK data, which was released on Nov. 16. 


Number of seasonally-adjusted unemployed persons occurred as 3.09 million persons without any change in the period of August 2015 compared to the previous period. Unemployment rate stands at 10.4 percent without any change, according to TÜİK data. 

“We expect the unemployment rate to keep increasing in the second half of the year after a first half that saw a better-than-expected growth rates but relatively high unemployment rates. In the meantime, we believe the existence of more than 2 million Syrian refugees has an impact in the rising jobless rate in Turkey,” said İş Investment Economist Muammer Kömürcüoğlu, as quoted by Reuters. 

“According to our calculations, many Syrians have been preferred by employees as they constitute a cheaper labor force. And this has pushed the annual unemployment rate up by 0.4 percent since the beginning of the year. Additionally, an expected hike in minimum wage will also probably increase the rate of unemployment at around 0.5 percent to 1 percent, with regards to the sharing of this burden between the public sector and the private sector,” he added. 

Number of unemployed persons aged 15 years old and over has become over 3.05 million people, with an increase of 114,000 people in the period of August 2015 compared to the same period of the previous year. 

“In the same period, non-agricultural unemployment rate realized as 12.4 percent with 0.1 percentage point increase. While youth unemployment rate, including the 15-24 age group, realized as 18.3 percent with a 0.6 percentage point decrease, unemployment rate for the 15-64 age group occurred as 10.3 percent without any change,” it added. 

The number of employed persons aged 15 years old and over realized as 27.1 million people with an 837,000 people increase in the period of August 2015 compared to the same period of the previous year. 

35.1 pct of jobs without social security

The labor force was constituted of 30.2 million people, marking a 951,000 person increase in the period of August 2015 compared to the same period of the previous year. The ratio of persons who worked without any social security related to their main job was 35.1 percent, with a 1.3 percentage point decrease in the period of August 2015 compared to the same period of the previous year, according to TÜİK data. 

In this vein, employment rate stands at 46.8 with 0.7 percentage point increase, according to TÜİK data. 

Agricultural employment increased by 202,000 persons and non-agricultural employment increased 636,000 persons in this period, said the agency. 

“Of those who were employed in this period; 22.2 percent was employed in agriculture, 19.3 percent was employed in industry, 7.5 percent was employed in construction and 51 percent was employed in services.

Employment in services increased by 0.6 percentage point and agriculture increased by 0.1 percentage point while that of industry decreased by 0.7 percentage point without any change in construction sector compared to the same period of the previous year,” said TÜİK. 

According to data gathered by the Ministry of Finance, total public sector employment stood at 3.5 million with 2.6 percentage point increase in the third quarter of 2015 compared to the same period of the previous year.