Labor Force Statistics

Unemployment rate realized as 12.7%

Seniors 15 and over Turkey in the number of unemployed increased by 668 thousand persons compared to the same period last year, the period of December 2016 was 3 million 872 thousand people. Unemployment rate increased by 1.9 points to 12.7%. In the same period; The non-agricultural unemployment rate was estimated at 14.9%, up 2.2 percentage points. While the unemployment rate in the young population (15-24 years) was 24% with an increase of 4.8 points, this rate was realized as 12.9% with an increase of 1.9 points in the 15-64 age group.

Employment rate was 45.1%

Number of employed persons increased by 221 thousand persons in December 2016 compared to the same period of the previous year and reached 26 million 669 thousand persons and the employment rate decreased by 0.3 points to 45.1%.

In this period, the number of people working in the agricultural sector decreased by 88 thousand, while the number of people working in non-agricultural sectors increased by 307 thousand. 18.4% of those employed were in agriculture, 19.7% in industry, 6.9% in construction and 54.9% in services. Compared to the same period of the previous year, the share of the agricultural sector in employed persons decreased by 0.5 points, the share of industry sector decreased by 0.4 points, the share of construction sector decreased by 0.2 points, while the share of services sector increased by 1 point.

Labor force participation rate was 51.6%

Labor force increased by 888 thousand persons in December 2016 compared to the same period of the previous year and reached 30 million 540 thousand persons and the labor force participation rate increased by 0.7 points to 51.6%. According to the comparisons made for the same periods; labor force participation rate for males was 71.5% with a 0.5 percentage point increase and 32.2% for female with a 1 percentage point increase.

Seasonally adjusted labor force indicators, December 2015, December 2016


The share of informal workers was 32.7%

In December 2016, the share of employees without any social security institutions increased by 0.6 points compared to the same period of the previous year and was realized as 32.7%.

Seasonally adjusted employment decreased, unemployment increased

Seasonally adjusted employment decreased by 36 thousand people compared to the previous period was estimated as 27 million 301 thousand people. Employment rate decreased by 0.1 points to 46.2%.

The seasonally adjusted number of unemployed people increased by 49 thousand compared to the previous period and amounted to 3 million 717 thousand people. The unemployment rate rose by 0.2 percentage points to 12%.

Seasonally adjusted labor force participation rate decreased by 0.1 points to 52.4% compared to the previous period. The number of people employed by economic activity increased by 39 thousand in the agricultural sector, 4 thousand in the service sector, 51 thousand in the industrial sector and 28 thousand in the construction sector.

Seasonally adjusted core labor force indicators, December 2015 - December 2016