As of the end of March, population out of the labor force grew by 868,000 year-on-year.

ANKARA – Labor force participation rate as of the end of March decreased to 49.4 percent. As a result, the population out of the labor force grew by 868,000 people, 496,000 being housewives.

The eighth issue of the TEPAV Employment Monitoring Bulletin was released. The study assessed a popular argument that employment remained strong despite the fall in the impetus of economic growth. According to seasonally adjusted labor force and employment figures for March 2012, the study said, labor force grew by 361,000 people while employment increased by 571,000 people. It continued:

“Despite this picture, where employment remained solid despite the year-on-year drop in the impetus of economic growth, looks bright at first glance, it requires further consideration. A striking and clarifying factor is that labor force participation rate deteriorated over the examined period, from 49.9 percent in March 2011 to 49.4 percent in March 2012. In other words, population over the age of 15 that could join the labor force preferred to stay out of the labor force. More importantly, the population under the “housewife” category grew significantly.

Between March 2011 and 2012, population that did not join the labor force grew by 868,000, indicating that if this group joined the labor force and failed to find a job, would represent a potential rise in the number of unemployed. The increase in the number of housewives is also remarkable. Almost 500,000 out of the 868,000 that remained out of the labor force over the last 12 months were women who do unpaid household work. According to this, number of housewives increased to 12.2 million, corresponding to 50% of total employed population.”

Population out of the labor force (March, 2011 - 2012) (Thousand people)

Source: Turkish Statistical Institute (TURKSTAT) Household Labor Survey

Employment drops in productive sectors …

The study also addressed the sector distribution of the 571,000 new jobs created between March 2011 and 2012. Employment decreased in “productive” sectors including agriculture, industry and construction while employment gains were observed in the services sector, the public sector to begin with. The Bulletin said:

“Between March 2011 and March 2012, employment gains were driven by administrative and support services with 146,000 new works while cumulative employment gains in health and education sectors mainly owned by the public sector and in public administration sector reached 350,000. Other sectors that drive employment gains in the given period were retail and wholesale trade and related transportation and warehousing sectors.

On the other hand and in line with the “soft landing” policy, employment in productive sectors not increased but dropped, as the pace of growth decelerated. Also affected by seasonality, employment in the agricultural sector decreased by 173,000, while that in manufacturing sector dropped by 28,000, construction by 40,000 and mining by 42,000.”