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Unemployment Rates Increase in Turkey

Reuters
Reuters
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Unemployment Rates Increase in Turkey

Reuters
Reuters

The Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research (SETA) has issued a report revealing an unprecedented increase in the unemployment rate in Turkey during only one year.

The report indicated an annual increase of 68.5 percent in June compared to the same period in 2018, adding that the number of those unemployed has amounted to 4.4 million, up from 2.6 million in June 2018, an increase of 1.8 million.

In its 83rd annual report, which was prepared in cooperation with the Turkish Employment Agency and the Statistical Institute, SETA relied on monitoring registered unemployment only, which does not include unregistered unemployment, such as those who work on a seasonal or daily basis.

According to the report, among people between 15 and 64 years, the number of registered unemployed females rose by 66.1 percent and for males by 71.3 percent.

While among people between 15 and 24 years, the number of registered unemployed females rose by 86 percent and 75.5 percent for males, compared to June 2018.

The increase in the number of unemployed people holding a middle school diploma was the largest among all other categories with 661,000 extra unemployed persons compared to last year.

They were followed by high school graduates with 470,000 while the number of unemployed among those with a university degree increased by 172,000.

It increased by 8,000 among those holding a master's degree and 235 among those who have a doctorate in different majors. Unemployment among university graduates rose by 112 percent.

As for the uneducated, the number of unemployed rose by 119,000.

The agency stated that the Turkish unemployment rate rose in June to 14.3 percent compared with 11 percent in the same month of 2018.

Official data showed that non-agricultural unemployment rose from 3.6 percent to 15 percent during the same period.

Seasonally adjusted employment fell by 74,000 from the previous period, estimated at 28.4 million people, and the number of seasonally unemployed people increased by 7,000 persons, bringing the total number to 4.49 million people.

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Italy Forges on with World's Largest Suspension Bridge

(FILES) A general aerial view shows the Sicilian coast towards Cape Torre Faro, over the Strait of Messina, taken from the outskirts of the town of Scilla, in Calabria region in southern Italy, on July 7, 2020. (Photo by Andreas SOLARO / AFP)
(FILES) A general aerial view shows the Sicilian coast towards Cape Torre Faro, over the Strait of Messina, taken from the outskirts of the town of Scilla, in Calabria region in southern Italy, on July 7, 2020. (Photo by Andreas SOLARO / AFP)
TT
20
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Italy Forges on with World's Largest Suspension Bridge

(FILES) A general aerial view shows the Sicilian coast towards Cape Torre Faro, over the Strait of Messina, taken from the outskirts of the town of Scilla, in Calabria region in southern Italy, on July 7, 2020. (Photo by Andreas SOLARO / AFP)
(FILES) A general aerial view shows the Sicilian coast towards Cape Torre Faro, over the Strait of Messina, taken from the outskirts of the town of Scilla, in Calabria region in southern Italy, on July 7, 2020. (Photo by Andreas SOLARO / AFP)

Italy hopes to begin constructing the world's largest suspension bridge connecting Sicily to the Italian mainland this summer amid widespread skepticism that it will ever be built.

The 13.5-billion-euro ($15.3-billion) project would carry trains and six lanes of traffic, allowing cars to cross the Strait of Messina in 15 minutes, AFP reported.

Giorgia Meloni's hard-right government hopes to boost the economy of the impoverished region, although critics say there are better ways to do this -- and many believe that after decades of false starts, the bridge will never actually happen.

The choppy waters between the eastern tip of Sicily and the western edge of the region of Calabria are legendary as the place where monsters Scylla and Charybdis terrified sailors in Homer's epic poem "The Odyssey".

These days the challenges are more prosaic, from winds of more than 100 kilometers an hour (62 mph) to the real risk of earthquakes in a region that lies across two tectonic plates.

The government says the bridge will be at the cutting edge of engineering, with the section suspended between its two pillars stretching 3.3 kilometers, the longest in the world.

But critics point to a long history of public works announced, financed and never completed in Italy, whether due to corruption or political instability, resulting in enormous losses for taxpayers.

"The public does not trust this political class and these projects that become endless construction sites," said Luigi Storniolo, a member of protest group No Ponte (No Bridge).

Infrastructure Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, one of the main champions of the project, insists it will be a game-changer for the local economy.

"The bridge will be a catalyst for development," he said on a recent visit to Reggio di Calabria, the city where the bridge will begin.

The government hopes to boost trade in Sicily, which currently suffers from an "insularity cost" of around 6.5 billion euros a year, according to regional authorities.

Meloni's ministers are expected to give their final approval to the project -- which Rome will fund -- later this month, and Salvini insists construction will begin this summer.

But work had already been announced for the summer of 2024, before being postponed -- a common theme in the history of the bridge, the idea of which dates back to the unification of Italy at the end of the 19th century.