Newsletters
Türkiye’s unemployment rate edged down to 8.4% in May, marking a 0.2 percentage point decrease from the previous month, according to official data released Monday by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat).
The number of unemployed individuals aged 15 and above declined by 69,000 in May compared to April, bringing the total to 2.97 million, data showed.
Although the overall unemployment rate continued to decline, the gender gap remained significant, with an unemployment rate of 6.5% for men and 11.9% for women.
The unemployment rate among youth, defined as individuals aged 15 to 24, stood at 15.4% in May. This figure highlights the ongoing challenges youth face in participating in the labor market, even as overall employment increases.
The number of employed persons in Türkiye reached 32.5 million in May, reflecting an increase of 100,000 compared to the previous month. This brought the seasonally adjusted employment rate to 49%, up by 0.1 percentage points.
Employment remained significantly skewed by gender, with the rate reaching 66.3% among men and 32.2% among women.
The average actual weekly working time for employed individuals, adjusted for seasonal and calendar effects, increased by 0.6 hours to 42.7 hours in May. This rise suggests a greater workload and possibly increased economic activity during the month.
The composite measure of labor underutilization—which includes time-related underemployment, potential labor force, and unemployment—declined by 1.1 percentage points to 31%.
Two related metrics also showed improvement: the combined rate of time-related underemployment and unemployment dropped to 20.7%, while the combined rate of unemployment and potential labor force fell to 20.2%.
1 min read
4 min read
