HUGE MONTHLY SWINGS IN MALE AND FEMALE EMPLOYMENT AND UNEMPLOYMENT
Since the number of employed persons increased by 37 thousand and the number of unemployed persons increased by 4 thousand, the labor force increased by 41 thousand from February to March. As a result, the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 10.0%. We infer that Turkstat has been able to implement surveys in the 3 (Gaziantep, Kilis and Malatya) of 7 provinces which were affected by the tragic earthquake.
The seasonally adjusted female unemployment rate increased by 1.0 pp to 13.8% from February to March, as female employment dropped by 313 thousand and female unemployment increased by 95 thousand. It is worthwhile to note that female employment rose by 210 thousand and the unemployment rate fell to 12.8% from January to February (previous period). As for males, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate went down by 0.5 pp to 8.1% following the strong increase in male employment by 351 thousand and the decrease in the number of unemployed males by 92 thousand. Similar to what happened for female labor force statistics, the number of male employed fell by 571 thousand in the previous period. This amount of swings in male and female labor force statistics can’t be explained without further details regarding the sectoral employment. Following these developments, the gender gap in the unemployment rates of females and males increased by 1.5 pp to 5.7%.