Turkey experienced its lowest unemployment rate in a decade in 2023, with figures dropping to 9.4 percent from 10.4 percent in 2022, according to official data released by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) on Monday.
The lowest unemployment rate in the past decade was in 2013, when it stood at 8.9 percent, while the highest rate was in 2019 at 13.7 percent.
According to “Labor Force Statistics 2023” released by TurkStat, the number of unemployed aged 15 or older decreased by 318,000 to 3.26 million when compared to 2022.
The unemployment rate among men was 7.7 percent, while it was 12.6 percent among women in 2023.
The employment rate also increased in 2023, reaching 48.3 percent, marking a 0.8 percentage point jump from the previous year. There were a total of 31,632 employed people aged 15 or older in Turkey in 2023. Among them, 65.7 percent were men, while 31.3 percent were women.
There were 34.8 million people in the labor force in 2023, with the labor force participation rate standing at 53.3 percent, with a 0.2 percentage point increase in 2023 compared to the previous year. The labor force participation rate was estimated to be 71.2 percent for men and 35.8 percent for women.
When it comes to the youth unemployment rate in the 15-24 age group, it stood at 17.4 percent with a 2.0 percentage point decrease compared to the previous year. While the youth unemployment rate was 14.3 percent among men, it was 23.2 percent among women.
Although TurkStat data paint a positive picture of the unemployment rate in the country last year, the institution’s statistics are met with skepticism. It faces accusations of masking the real unemployment and inflation rates in order to hide the economic deterioration in the country.