SEVERE LOSSES IN LABOR FORCE AND EMPLOYMENT
Seyfettin Gürsel , Mehmet Cem Şahin
Seasonally adjusted labor market data shows that in the period of April 2020, non-agricultural unemployment rate turned out to be 16.1 percent, with 0.9 percentage point increases compared to March 2020. In this period, non- agricultural employment decreased by 934 thousand while non-agricultural labor force decreased by 837 thousand. According to sectorial data, employment losses occurred in all sectors. While agriculture employment decreased by 34 thousand, manufacturing employment and construction employment decreased by 164 thousand and by 123 thousand respectively. The most significant decreases in employment occurred in services that attained 647 thousand. Over the last two periods, employment losses in this sector amounted to 1 million 341 thousand. Based on the seasonally adjusted data, while female non-agricultural employment decreased by 289 thousand, non- agricultural labor force decreased by 353 thousand. As the result of this decreases in female labor force and employment, non-agricultural female unemployment rate stood unchanged at 17.8 percent. Male labor force and employment decreased by 499 thousand and 643 thousand respectively. Since the decline in male employment was higher than the male labor force, male non-agricultural unemployment rate increased by 1.2 percentage points to 15.1 percent.