NO INCREASES IN UNEMPLOYMENT
Seyfettin Gürsel, Gokce Uysal and Furkan Kavuncu
Seasonally adjusted labor market data shows that in the period of August 2018, non-agricultural unemployment rate remained constant at 13.0 percent. Even though there is a strong increase in non-agricultural labor force, due to a parallel increase in non-agricultural employment, non-agricultural unemployment rate remained constant. In the period of August 2018, the increase in non-agricultural employment stems from an increase in the service sector. Employment increased by 27 thousand in manufacturing, 4 thousand in construction where employment losses were recorded since February 2018, and 156 thousand in services. Even though the non-agricultural unemployment rate did not raise, the gender gap in non-agricultural unemployment has widened in this period. While non-agricultural male unemployment rate decreased by 0.1 percentage points, non-agricultural female unemployment rate rose by 0.6 percentage points. Betam’s forecasting model predicts that the non-agricultural unemployment will increase to 13.2 percent in the period of September 2018.