Women’s Employment Increases in the West, Decreases in the East

Women’s employment is highest in Denizli, İzmir, İstanbul, Edirne, and Kırklareli and lowest in Şırnak, Ağrı, Bitlis, Van and Siirt. Employment among women continues to decline in eastern Turkey.

ANKARA – The ratio of women’s employment, which averages 23.7 percent in Turkey, falls as low as 6.8 percent in the eastern provinces of the country. The ratio of women’s employment is highest in Denizli, İzmir, İstanbul, Edirne, and Kırklareli and lowest in Şırnak, Ağrı, Bitlis, Van and Siirt.

Women’s employment has not increased

The second issue of the TEPAV Employment Monitoring Bulletin has been published. According to the Social Security Institution (SSI) data quoted in the bulletin, the number of paid workers with insurance (4/a) increased by 11.1 percent between September 2010-2011, while women’s employment rose by 10.8 percent. Women’s share in the 1,102,000 new jobs in the last twelve months has been 254,000. Therefore, the share of women in total paid employment has reached 23.7 percent.

Women’s employment reached its height during February, March and May 2011, at 24.3 percent, after which the ratio fell to 23.7 percent by September. Therefore, the ratio remained at the same level compared to the same period in 2010.

Women’s employment was highest in Denizli, with 29.8 percent; followed by Izmir, with 29 percent; Istanbul with 28.4 percent; Edirne, with 28.3 percent; and Kırklareli, with 27.7 percent. The provinces with the lowest rate of women’s employment in September 2011 were Şırnak, with 6.8 percent; Ağrı, with 7.7 percent; Bitlis, with 7.9 percent; Van, with 8.4 percent; and Siirt, with 8.7 percent.

Women’s employment goes downhill in the east

Over the last year, women’s employment has declined in eastern Turkey, both proportionally and nominally. The sharpest decline was observed in Van, where the number of female workers with insurance decreased by 2,566, from 6,642 to 4,076. Van was followed by Urfa, Ağrı, Diyarbakır, and Şırnak. In Şırnak, female employment decreased from 2,438 to 1,350.

Informal employment rises among women

According to SSI data, over the last twelve months the women’s employment rate has remained constant whereas TURKSTAT data state that women’s employment has been increasing. A large proportion of the new employment among women is in the informal sector.

According to TURKSTAT, women’s employment increased by 668,000 between September 2010 and 2011, 319,000 being insured. On the other hand, men’s employment increased by 1, 108,000, 178,000 being informal. The informal employment ratio among women hence increased from 38.5 to 39.8 percent.

The Ratio of women’s employment (5 Provinces with the highest and the lowest ratio)