Turkey’s army of jobless swelling to record level
Despite extensive incentives and other initiatives to create jobs, Turkey’s government has failed to reduce the unemployment rate to single digits during its 16-year rule and is now likely to bring it up to 15%, the highest level in three decades.
Unemployment in crisis-hit Turkey has reached a staggering level ahead of the March 31 municipal elections, giving the opposition fresh ammunition in its quest to wrestle key cities from the ruling party and deal the government a political blow.
The country’s gross domestic product shrank 3% in the fourth quarter of 2018, according to official figures announced March 11, with the economy growing only 2.6% last year, a sharp decline from 7.4% in 2017.
Naturally, the contraction — coupled with consumer inflation of more than 20% — was expected to bring about a decrease in employment. On March 15, officials announced that the jobless rate hit 13.5% in December, exposing further the gravity of the country’s economic downturn.
The 13.5% figure is only a notch below Turkey’s worst unemployment rate in the past three decades — 14% in 2009, which was a year of crisis under the impact of global financial turmoil. Given the trend, however, the January rate, to be released in mid-April, appears set to break the record.
