Turkey lifts veil on unemployment data, revealing bigger army of jobless
A new, broader set of labor statistics has exposed a big gap between Turkey’s official unemployment rate and the actual joblessness in the crisis-hit country.
The Turkish Statistical Institute, a government-run agency, has finally broadened the scope of its unemployment data, admitting by implication that the official rates camouflage as much as 60% of the actual joblessness in the country.
Controversy over the credibility of the unemployment rates flared up during the COVID-19 pandemic, which came atop economic turmoil that had plagued Turkey since a currency crisis in 2018. Unemployment was visibly on the rise, but the official rates showed decreases in the number of jobless. The statistical institute has long shared limited data with the public, based on a narrow definition of unemployment, but the figures reached absurd levels when showing declines in both employment and unemployment during the pandemic. Independent economists as well as organizations such as the DISK trade union began to loudly dispute the official rates as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan boasted of reducing unemployment.
