STRONG REVERSAL IN LABOR FORCE PARTICIPATION AND EMPLOYMENT
Seyfettin Gürsel, Mehmet Cem Şahin
Seasonally adjusted labor market data shows that in the period of June 2020, non-agricultural unemployment rate turned out to be 16.7 percent, with 0.2 percentage point increases compared to May 2020. In this period, both non-agricultural employment and labor force increased by 395 thousand and by 534 thousand respectively. According to sectorial data, employment increased in all sectors. In addition to the increase of employment in agriculture and construction by 36 thousand and 141 thousand respectively, employment gains in manufacturing and services employment amounted to 25 thousand and 230 thousand. Services employment reversed its consecutive decreases which lasted for 7 periods. Based on the seasonally adjusted data, while female non-agricultural employment increased by 151 thousand non-agricultural female labor force increased by 251 thousand. As a result, non-agricultural female unemployment rate increased by 0.7 percentage points to 19.0 percent. On the other hand, male labor force and employment increased by 414 thousand and 330 thousand respectively taking up non-agricultural male unemployment rate from 15.5 to 15.6 percent. The existing gender gap in non-agricultural unemployment rate has been enlarged by 0.6 percentage points.