Page 50 - TURKRptMay19

Turkey’s official unemployment rate grew again in January, moving up to 14.7%, the highest level seen since March 2009, from 13.5% in December, statistical institute TUIK said on April 15. That 10-year-high includes a youth unemployment rate that has hit a record high of 26.7%, growing more than 2 percentage points from 24.5% in December. TUIK has provided youth unemployment figures since 2005.
It should be noted—yes, it really should—that these figures are relatively mild compared to the actual situation out there, thanks to TUIK’s suspect methodology for calculating what constitutes joblessness.
While Turkey’s population aged over 15 is growing—it reaching 61.02mn in January from 60.95mn the month before—the country’s workforce is officially contracting—month on month, it fell to 31.83mn from 31.96mn—since the TUIK’s perception of unemployment does not include people who have not searched for jobs in the past three weeks even if they are ready to work.
There seems little prospect that Turkey’s unemployment rate will improve before July or August at least due to the recession-hit country’s contracting GDP, Tatha Ghose of Commerzbank told Reuters. Seasonal jobs in tourism—one area Turkey is picking up thanks to the weak Turkish lira—and agriculture will help the headline figure to fall starting from April-May, but most probably not the seasonally-adjusted figure which the markets follow.
4.5.2 Income dynamics
50 TURKEY Country Report May 2019 www.intellinews.com