The Turkish Statistical Institute [Turkstat] announced its workforce statistics for May 2019. Accordingly, the unemployment rate realized 12.8 percent.

The number of unemployed persons aged 15 years old and over increased by 1 million 21 thousand to 4 million 157 thousand persons in the period of May 2019 in Turkey compared with the same period of the previous year.

The unemployment rate occurred as 12.8% with a 3.1 percentage point increase. In the same period, non-agricultural unemployment rate occurred as 15.0% with a 3.4 percentage point increase.

While youth unemployment rate including persons aged 15-24 was 23.3% with a 5.5 percentage point increase, the unemployment rate for persons aged 15-64 occurred as 13.1% with a 3.2 percentage point increase.

Employment rate realized as 46.1%

The number of employed persons decreased by 869 thousand to 28 million 269 thousand persons in the period of May 2019 compared with the same period of the previous year. The employment rate occurred as 46.1% with a 2-percentage point decrease.

The number of agricultural employment decreased by 307 thousand persons and the number of non-agricultural employment decreased by 562 thousand persons in this period.

According to the distribution of employment by sector; 18.3% was employed in agriculture, 19.6% was in the industry, 5.5% was in construction and 56.6% was in services.

Employment in agriculture decreased by 0.5 percentage point and construction decreased by 1.7 percentage point while industry increased by 0.1 percentage point and services increased by 2 percentage point compared with the same period of the previous year. Labor force participation rate realized as 52.9%

The number of persons in the labor force realized 32 million 426 thousand persons with 152 thousand persons increase in the period of May 2019 compared with the same period of the previous year.

Labor force participation rate (LFPR) was 52.9% with a 0.4 percentage point decrease. LFPR for male was 71.7% with a 0.9 percentage point decrease and the rate for female was 34.4% without any change compared with the same period of the previous year.

The rate of unregistered employment realized as 34.4%

The ratio of persons working without any social security relating to the main job occurred by 34.4% with a 0.7 percentage point increase in the period of May 2019 compared with the same period of the previous year.

In the non-agricultural sector, the rate of unregistered employment realized as 22.8% with 0.4 percentage point increase compared to the same period of the previous year.Public sector employment increased as 10.6%According to data gathered by Presidency of Strategy and Budget, total public sector employment realized as 4 million 570 thousand persons with 10.6% percentage point increase in the second quarter of 2019 compared to the same period of the previous year. Seasonally adjusted employment rate realized as 45.4% and unemployment rate realized as 14.0%Seasonally adjusted employed persons decreased by 137 thousand persons and occurred 27 million 876 thousand persons compared with the previous period. Seasonally adjusted employment rate occurred 45.4% with a 0.3 percentage point decrease.The number of seasonally adjusted unemployed persons increased by 38 thousand to 4 million 527 thousand persons in the period of May 2019 compared with the previous period. The unemployment rate was 14.0% with a 0.2 percentage point increase.

Seasonally adjusted labor force participation rate was 52.8% with a 0.3 percentage point decrease compared with the previous period.

According to the number of employment by sector, employment in agriculture decreased by 25 thousand persons, industry decreased by 7 thousand persons, construction decreased by 44 thousand persons and services decreased by 62 thousand persons.

ILKHA