Turkish unemployment falls to 13.2pc in Feb-April despite coronavirus

ISTANBUL: Turkey's unemployment rate fell to 13.2pc in the February-April period from 13.6pc a month earlier, data showed on Wednesday, falling despite an economic slowdown driven by measures to counter the coronavirus outbreak.

The government imposed a three-month ban on layoffs in April to mitigate the impact of the pandemic and President Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday the government had prepared a comprehensive package to boost employment.

The unemployment rate stood at 14.1pc in the same period last year. The non-agricultural unemployment rate fell to 15.0pc from 16.1pc a year earlier, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute.

Seasonally adjusted, the non-agricultural unemployment rate rose to 15.1pc from 14.6pc a month earlier, with the labour force participation rate declining by 1.7 percentage points to 49.0pc.

Analysts expect the pandemic to tip the economy into its second recession in as many years.

Unemployment has remained high since mid-2019, even while the economy emerged from a recession brought on by a currency crisis in 2018.

After a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Erdogan said the employment support package aimed to bring back into the labour market people who lost their jobs between Jan 2019 and April 2020.

"We will give normalisation support to employers who put workers on short working hours or unpaid leave due to the decline in economic activity," he said, adding that those under 25 would be able to get work experience.