Turkish Labor Market: The Lean Times
Turkish statistics office released December 2016 jobs report which suggested that the unemployment rate at 12.7% hit a 7-year high as well as a seasonally adjusted figure at 12%. More importantly, the number of unemployed people stood at 3.87 million which was the higher figure ever recorded in that regard.
When the agriculture sector excluded, the adjusted unemployment rate also climbed considerably to 14.3% which was a result of the weaker economic activity and deteriorating expectations. Last year also...
Service Jobs: Structural Headwind?
One of the key issues the world economy faces today is declining productivity. At this juncture, Turkey seems to be obliged to deal with a structural headwind stemming from its weakness labor market of which dynamics have changed radically. As this is the case in advanced economies, particularly in the U.S., services jobs now have a larger share in employment while manufacturing has had a percentage shrinking over the past decade (see June Jobs Report: Not Encouraging).
As of the end...