Unemployment Increased to 14 Percent in 2009

The Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) announced the labour force figures for 2009.

Unemployment reached 14 percent according to official numbers

According to the TÜİK study, a total of 3,471,000 people were unemployed in 2009, which means an increase of 860,000 people compared to the previous year. The unemployment rate rose by three percentage points to 14 percent.

Yet, the estimated number of unreported cases is expected to be higher than that since the study did not take into account people who gave up looking for work. Several economists assert that the official figures mask the real unemployment rate because it leaves out the group of people who are not looking for a job any more.

Higher unemployment in urban areas

The unemployment rate in urban areas peaked to 16.6 percent which means a raise of 3.8 percentage points; in rural areas unemployment increased at a slower rate by 1.7 percentage points to 8.9 percent. Compared to the previous year, unemployment in non-agricultural sectors climbed up 3.8 percentage points to 17.4 percent.

Almost half of all employed people are working off the record

According to the TÜİK research, 43.8 percent of all people in employment lack social security. That means that out of a total of 100 people 44 work off the record. This is a marginal increase of 0.3 percent compared to 2008.

One quarter of the younger part of the population is jobless

Unemployment within the younger segment of the population amounts to 25.3 percent. Thus, one out of four young people is jobless compared to one out of five in 2008.

22 out of 100 unemployed in Istanbul

493,000 people were jobless in Istanbul in 2008; this figure rose to 753,000 during the last year. This number rates at 22 percent of the national unemployment. Redundancy in Istanbul exceeds the average with a total of 17.5 percent.

Social services most affected

Considering professional training, people educated in the social service sector are most affected with an unemployment rate of 31.3 percent, the transport and environmental protection sectors rate at 21.1 percent.

Unemployment amounts to 24 percent in the branch of art and to 20.6 percent in the IT field.

The lowest unemployment rate of 1.6 percent is registered for the security sector. A mere 2,000 out of a total of 96,000 people trained in this sector are out of work. The health sector comes second with 4 percent, followed by 4.3 percent for law education and 6.8 percent for people trained as veterinarians.

The unemployment rate for journalism and the information sector is 19.1 percent, 12.2 percent for teachers, 12.1 percent for architects and 15.4 percent in administration.

While 1.2 million illiterate people are employed, 4,698,000 do not look for a job. That sums up to a total of 5,787,000 illiterate people in Turkey.

3,689,000 people are literate but did not graduate from school. 2.5 million of them stay at home, 988,000 are employed, resulting in an unemployment rate of 15.3 percent. Considering schooling, redundancy in Turkey seems to increase relative to the level of basic education: 12.2 percent of unemployment for primary school graduates, 17.6 percent for graduates of junior high school and 18 percent for senior high school graduates. (TK/VK)