Women’s share in employment shrinking day by day

* Photo: Ferdi Uzun / AA

Click to read the article in Turkish

The Economy Policy Research Foundation of Turkey (TEPAV) has published its Employment Monitoring Bulletin for February 2021.

According to the findings of the bulletin based on the Social Security Institution (SGK) data, the number of insured employees increased by 5.3 percent annually and became 21.1 million people.

While there was a 6.1-percent increase in the category of "insured wage earners", who constituted 71.3 percent of all insured employees in Turkey, the number of shopkeepers increased by 9 percent and that of farmers dropped by 4.3 percent. The number of insured employees in the public sector saw an increase of 0.9 percent in February 2021.

Highest decline in hospitality and food

While unemployment declined in two thirds of the main sectors on an annual basis, these sectors were the ones that were affected most by the pandemic and had seen a shrinkage in employment since April 2020.

While a 10.8-percent decline was measured in the hospitality and food sector in February 2021, the rate of fall was 8.7 percent in the fields of culture, arts, entertainment, recreation and sports. There was a similar decline in the administrative and support services activities (12.1 percent) and education (3.5 percent), as was also the case in the April-May 2021 period.

On the other side, in the sector of households' activities as employers, which also covers the domestic services, the rate of shrinkage was 39.5 percent, which has marked the highest figure in that regard.

21.2-percent increase in construction

In the sectors that witnessed a recovery in the second half of 2020, the increase in employment continues. While employment increased by 14.3 percent in agriculture, forestry and fishing industry, the rate of increase was 8.9 percent in manufacturing, 21.2 percent in construction and 6 percent in wholesale and retail sales. In the sector of human health and social services, the high-rate (40.percent) increase in employment has been ongoing.

Share of women's employment on the decrease

While the share of women's employment in the total employment has been decreasing, the number of insured women employees increased by 210 thousand people when compared to last year. However, the share of insured women workers in the total number declined from 31.3 percent in February 2020 to 30.9 percent in February 2021.

Moreover, with the introduction of the restrictive measures against the second wave of the pandemic, the number of women employees has dropped by nearly 50 thousand people since October 2020.

4.7-percent rise in number of workplaces

In the last year, the number of workplaces increased in 67 sectors. In February 2021, the number of workplaces across Turkey increased by 4.7 percent (88 thousand) and became 1 million 966. The sector of building construction saw the highest increase, with 22 thousand new workplaces. 

* Click here for the full report (in Turkish)

(HA/SD)