More than 30 percent job losses in three earthquake-hit provinces

The Turkish Economic Policy Research Foundation (TEPAV) has published the May 2023 Employment Monitoring Bulletin.

In the text of the TEPAV, in which it is indicated that significant changes were observed in the registered employment data for the period January-May 2023 due to the earthquake, it was indicated that “the five-month change in the period January-May pointed to to a decrease of 374,500 (13.3%) in total employment compared to the end of 2022.”

Kahramanmaraş 65,057 (37.3 percent), Hatay 70,839 (36.1 percent) and Malatya 36,735 (30.3 percent) were the top three provinces with the largest contraction in employment.

They were followed by Gaziantep with 57,498 (15.6 percent) and Elazig with 9,735 (11.9 percent). Urfa (11.3 percent) and Kilis (11.1 percent) were the other provinces that were in the earthquake zone and lost jobs.

In this period, employment in Kilis, Adana, Diyarbakir and Osmaniye contracted by more than 5 per cent.

DECREASE IN THE NUMBER OF INSURED EMPLOYEES BY 765K

According to TEPAV data, while the total number of insured employees decreased 2 percent (765,000) annually in May, it increased 0.3 percent (57,000) monthly to 22,475,000.

According to the May 2023 data of insured employees announced by the Social Security Institution (SGK) on July 31, 2023, the group of insured employees (4/a) constituted 70.8 percent of the total insured employees and it was decisive in the general course. of employment.

Although the annual variation in this group was 4.6 percent (765 thousand 915), it decreased monthly by 0.5 percent (79 thousand 676).

On the other hand, although the annual variation in the group of artisanal farmers (4/b) decreased by 1.4 percent, the changes in the lower classes were different.

In this period, while the number of merchants decreased by 1.8 percent (46,546), the number of farmers increased by 1.3 percent (6,602).

On the other hand, the monthly variations in this group decreased by 0.7 percent in the number of merchants, while the number of farmers increased by 4.0 percent.

The number of insured employees (4/c) in the public sector increased 10.7 percent annually and 4.0 percent (136,230) monthly.

THE DECLINE IN THE NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES CONTINUES IN THE AREA OF THE EARTHQUAKE

As of May, the proportion of paid employment secured in 11 provinces in the earthquake zone was 9.3 percent.

The number of employees decreased to 318 thousand 748 (17.7 percent) annually and to 136 thousand 864 (8.4 percent) monthly.

In May, employment in 15 provinces, especially in 7 provinces in the disaster zone, decreased annually.

THE NUMBER OF APPLICANTS FOR UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFIT EXCEEDED 800 THOUSAND

The number of short-time allowance recipients increased by about 100,000 after the earthquake.

Thus, while the number of applicants for unemployment benefits was 696,630 in May, it increased to 826,588 in June; The number of beneficiaries increased from 302 thousand 81 to 362 thousand 100 in those months.

On the other hand, although the number of beneficiaries of the short-time allowance was 1,261 in January, it increased to 100,217 in the two following months and decreased to 1,879 as of July.

In this context, the amount of payments made decreased from TL 46,595,000 in May to TL 1,971,000 in July.