INCREASE IN NON-AGRICULTURAL EMPLOYMENT CONTINUES

Seyfettin Gürsel and Duygu Güner

According to the labor market statistics released by TurkStat on 15th of July, non-agricultural employment has increased by 1millon 139 thousand and non-agricultural labor force by 592 thousand in the period of April 2010 (March-April-May). Hence, employment in the non-agricultural sectors reached 16 million 882 thousand, which implies a 7 percent increase. Non-agricultural unemployment decreased drastically as the increase in non-agricultural labor force returned to its trend prior to crisis, which was approximately 500 thousand on year on year basis (Figure 1). As a consequence, the downward trend in unemployment which has been observed in the last three terms, continued; non-agricultural unemployment decreased by 547 thousand and settled at 2 million 956 thousand. The non-agricultural unemployment rate decreased to 14.9 percent in April 2010 period from 18.2 percent in April 2009 period.

The persisting increase in non-agricultural employment signals high economic growth in the second quarter. In fact, the increase in the industrial production index, which was released on 7th of July 2010, exceeded expectations. Employment in manufacturing reached 5 million 799 thousand, which is slightly above its pre-crisis April 2008 level.

doc. ResearchBrief081

pdf. ResearchBrief081