Turkstat announced the January 2019 labor force statistics. Accordingly, unemployment rate realized as 14.7 percent.

The number of unemployed persons aged 15 years old and over increased by 1,259,000 to 4,668,000 persons in the period of January 2019 in Turkiye compared with the same period of the previous year.

The unemployment rate occurred as 14.7% with 3.9 percentage point increase.

In the same period, non-agricultural unemployment rate occurred as 16.8% with a 4.1 percentage point increase.

While youth unemployment rate including persons aged 15-24 was 26.7% with 6.8 percentage point increase, the unemployment rate for persons aged 15-64 occurred as 15.0% with 3.9 percentage point increase.

Employment rate realized as 44.5%

The number of employed persons decreased by 872,000 to 27,157,000 persons in the period of January 2019 compared with the same period of the previous year. The employment rate occurred as 44.5% with a 1.9 percentage point decrease. 

The number of agricultural employment decreased by 345,000 persons and the number of non-agricultural employment decreased by 526,000 persons in this period.

According to the distribution of employment by sector; 17.0% was employed in agriculture, 19.9% was in the industry, 5.4% was in construction and 57.7% was in services.

Employment in agriculture decreased by 0.7 percentage point and construction decreased by 1.6 percentage point while services increased by 2.3 percentage point. The share of the industry was occurred without any change compared with the same period of the previous year. 

Labor force participation rate realized as 52.2%

The number of persons in the labor force realized 31,825,000 persons with 387,000 persons increase in the period of January 2019 compared with the same period of the previous year.

Labor force participation rate (LFPR) was 52.2% with a 0.1 percentage point increase. LFPR for male was 71.1% with a 0.2 percentage point decrease and the rate for female was 33.6% with 0.4 percentage point increase compared with the same period of the previous year.

The rate of unregistered employment realized as 33.1%

The ratio of persons working without any social security relating to the main job occurred by 33.1% with a 0.6 percentage point increase in the period of January 2019 compared with the same period of the previous year.

In the non-agricultural sector, the rate of unregistered employment realized as 22.5% with a 0.7 percentage point increase compared to the same period of the previous year.

Seasonally adjusted employment rate realized as 45.9% and unemployment rate realized as 13.3%

Seasonally adjusted employed persons decreased by 223,000 persons and occurred 28 million 14 thousand persons compared with the previous period. Seasonally adjusted employment rate occurred 45.9 with a 0.4 percentage point decrease.

The number of seasonally adjusted unemployed persons increased by 170,000 to 4 million 295 thousand persons in the period of January 2019 compared with the previous period. The unemployment rate was 13.3% with a 0.6 percentage point increase.

Seasonally adjusted labor force participation rate was 52.9% with a 0.2 percentage point decrease compared with the previous period. According to the number of employment by sector, employment in agriculture decreased by 22 thousand persons, industry decreased by 82 thousand persons, construction decreased by 44 thousand persons and services decreased by 76 thousand persons. (ILKHA)