Unemployment Rates Increase in Turkey

Reuters
Reuters
TT

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.



Trump to Take Virtual Center Stage in Davos

Davos will finally hear from the man himself during a live video appearance, with CEOs given the chance to lob questions at Donald Trump. FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP
Davos will finally hear from the man himself during a live video appearance, with CEOs given the chance to lob questions at Donald Trump. FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP
TT

Trump to Take Virtual Center Stage in Davos

Davos will finally hear from the man himself during a live video appearance, with CEOs given the chance to lob questions at Donald Trump. FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP
Davos will finally hear from the man himself during a live video appearance, with CEOs given the chance to lob questions at Donald Trump. FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP

Donald Trump on Thursday will star in an eagerly-anticipated online appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos, addressing global elites whose annual gabfest has been consumed by the US president's days-old second term.
Trump's name has come up in almost every conversation in the Swiss Alpine village this week: in formal panel discussions, in shuttles ferrying people up and down the mountain, and in exclusive parties along the promenade.
"Trump is a provocateur. He enjoys being a provocateur, and many people at Davos are bored in their life. He's not boring. So, you know, it's kind of exciting," Harvard scholar and WEF regular Graham Allison told AFP.
Davos will finally hear from the man himself during a live video appearance, with CEOs given the chance to lob questions at Trump, himself a businessman who made his fortune in real estate.
He already gave Davos a taste of what is to come since his inauguration on Monday, which coincided with the WEF's first day: tariff threats against Mexico and Canada, the US withdrawal from the Paris climate pact, a threat to take the Panama Canal, just to name a few.
His plans to cut taxes, reduce the size of the federal government and deregulate industries will find a sympathetic ear amongst many businesses.
"Trump has been running America like America Inc. He's been very focused on getting the best advantage for the US in any way that he can," Julie Teigland, a managing partner at EY consulting firm, told AFP.
"He knows that he needs trade partners to do that. He does. And so I expect him to give messages along these lines," she said.
'No winners'
His trade partners had a chance to react in Davos earlier this week.
Without invoking Trump's name, Chinese Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang warned that "there are no winners in a trade war".
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz vowed to defend free trade but he took a conciliatory tone, saying that he had good earlier discussions with Trump.
European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen said that Brussels was ready to negotiate with Trump, but she also underscored the bloc's diverging policy with him on climate, saying it would stick by the Paris accord.
Panama's President Jose Raul Mulino dismissed Trump's claims to the Panama Canal, which was built by the United States but handed to the Central American country in 1999 under two-decade old treaties.
Mulino said he was "not worried" and that Panama would not be "distracted by this type of statement".
'Celebrate Trump'
The Republican president also has fans in Davos.
One of his biggest cheerleaders on the world stage, Argentina's libertarian President Javier Milei, will make a speech to the WEF on Thursday, hours before Trump.
"The world should celebrate the arrival of President Trump," Milei said at a Bloomberg event on Wednesday.
"The golden era he proposes for the United States will shine a light for the whole world as it will spell the end of the woke ideology, which is doing so much harm to the planet," Milei said.
One of his backers in the business world, Marc Benioff, the chief executive of US tech firm Salesfoce, was also enthusiastic at the same Bloomberg chat.
"I'm very positive," he said. "I'm just looking forward to seeing what's going to happen. And it's a new day and, it's an exciting moment."