New employment opportunities for women were generated mainly by the services sectors; education, health and tourism being chief among them.

ANKARA - TEPAV reports that women’s share in the non-agricultural employment increased by 5 percentage points and exceeded 4.8 million in the first quarter of 2013, although 27 percent of women’s employment is still in the informal sector. Over the last 5 years, women’s employment in the non-agricultural sector, that is, in the urban areas, increased by more than 1.5 million.

The nineteenth issue of the TEPAV Employment Monitoring Bulletin reports that between March 2009 and March 2013, non-agricultural employment for women increased from 3,400,000 to 4,847,000. Over the same period, total employment among women increased from 5.6 million to around 7.5 million. The report stressed that women started to join the labor force in 2008 due to the severe impact of the crisis on household income. The report added that the government’s policy to incentivize women’s employment by paying the insurance premium of female employees also contributed to the increase. The report continued:

“The number of female employees grew particularly in the services sector. Although the increase was limited in 2009 when the economy shrunk by 5 percent, women’s employment increased significantly in 2010 and 2011 when the economy grew by around nine percent consecutively thanks to domestic demand. Employment among women increased also in 2012, a year when the economy grew by a weak 2.2 percent. In March 2013, women’s employment in the non-agricultural sector exceeded 4.8 million. Although 27 percent of this figure refers to jobs in the informal sector, the share of women in the non-agricultural employment increased from 20 percent to 25 percent over the mentioned period.”

Between March 2012 and March 2013, women’s employment increased by 603,000; 20 percent composed of jobs in the non-agricultural and 24 percent in the manufacturing sectors. New jobs for women were generated chiefly in the services sectors of education, health and tourism, which conventionally constitute major part of women’s employment.

Female labor force participation on the rise

Pointing at the decrease in the number of “housewives” the report continued:

“The population above 15 years of age that do not participate in the labor force decreased from 28,000,000 in 2012 to 27,549,000 in March 2013, indicating a rise in the labor force participation rate. The decrease in the share of housewives who were recorded out of the labor force was influential in the increase in labor force participation rate. The number of housewives, which was 12.2 million in March 2012 decreased by around 800 thousand to 11,4 million as of March 2013.”