Gökçe Uysal and Uğurcan Acar
Seasonally adjusted labor market data shows that, in the period of April 2018 compared to March 2018, non-agricultural unemployment rate increased by 0.4 percentage points and reached 12.2 percent. An increase in the labor force and a decrease in employment concurrently are the reasons behind the increase in non-agricultural unemployment. Sectoral data indicates that employment in manufacturing increased while employment in services remained almost unchanged. On the other hand, there have been strong employment losses in construction in the last two periods. Thus the non-agricultural unemployment rate has increased to 12.2 percent. Since employment losses occurred mostly in construction where men are more likely to be employed, the gender gap in non-agricultural unemployment rates have decreased in favor of women. Betam’s forecasting model predicts that the non-agricultural unemployment will increase to 12.3 percent in the period of May 2018.