According to figures released by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK – TurkStat), Turkey’s unemployment rate remained the same at 12.7% in October 2020. The figure for the month of October of the previous year was 13.4%. The rate for October 2020 comprises all those of 15 years of age and above, and represents a total figure of unemployed of 4,005,000, a decrease of 391,000 on the figure for the same month of the previous year.
The unemployment rate for people aged between 15 and 64 was given as 13%, the estimated unemployment rate for those outside agriculture was given as 14.8%, and the unemployment rate among the young, which comprises of people aged between 15 and 24, was given as 24.9% in October 2020.
The number of people in the workforce in October 2020 was 27,447 thousand people, some 896 thousand lower than the same month of the previous year. This labour force total was 43.6% of the total population over 15 years of age. The number of workers available for work in October 2020 is 31,452 thousand, a fall of 1,288 thousand on the same month of the previous year and 50% of the total population over 15 years of age..
There is much criticism of TurkStat’s employment statistics because of its definition of unemployed as those who have registered for unemployment within the last four weeks, whereas before 2014, this period was three months. Based on many independent sources such as trade unions, the real unemployment rate is at least two times the official TurkStat caluculation.