Turkey's job market continued to improve in April with the unemployment rate falling for the third straight month amid a recovery in demand as the expanding economy creates new jobs. The jobless rate edged down to 9.3% in April from 10.3% in March, statistics office TUIK said on July 15. A year ago the unemployment rate stood at 9.6%.

The reading in April sees unemployment falling below the 10% level for the first time since July 2015. One of the reasons for the stubbornly high unemployment is the entrance of Syrian refugees to Turkey’s labour market. Turkey hosts nearly 3mn refugees from its war-torn southern neighbour.

The number of unemployed stood at 2.82mn people as of the end of April. The labour participation rate improved to 52% from 51.3% in March and up from 51.1% in April 2015. The seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate remained flat at 9.7% in April compared to the previous month, but it fell from 10% a year ago.

The economy created a total of 645,000 jobs in April, most of these coming from the agriculture sector that added 259,000. In April, industry created only 86,000 jobs, while construction and services sectors added 162,000 and 138,000 respectively.

The increasing number of Syrian refugees continues to pose risks for the job market. Only 6,686 of the Syrian refugees have applied for work permits and 5,000 of those applied were granted permission in the first half of the year, according to data of the ministry of labour. The figure suggests that Syrians are not actively seeking jobs and prefer to rely on government aid or work in the grey economy. However, whether Syrians enter the job market or not, the latest data of TUIK still provides a strong outlook for the job market.

The April figures, on the other hand, probably did not fully reflect the problems in Turkey’s struggling tourism sector. In April, foreign tourist visits were down 28% y/y, but in May the decline in tourist arrivals was a staggering 35%. Hotels and tourism companies could have reduced their headcount after May and these figures will be reflected in the forthcoming job data.

TURKEY'S JOB MARKET
		Population 15 years and over	Labour Force	Employed	Unemployed	Not in labour force	Labour force participa-  tion rate                     (%)	Unemployment rate                (%)	Non-agricultural unemploy-ment rate                          (%)
2015	January	57 475	28 713	25 454	3 259	28 761	50.0	11.3	13.4
	February	57 545	28 803	25 576	3 226	28 742	50.1	11.2	13.2
	March	57 609	29 022	25 953	3 069	28 587	50.4	10.6	12.6
	April	57 679	29 459	26 638	2 821	28 220	51.1	9.6	11.6
	May	57 747	29 861	27 072	2 789	27 886	51.7	9.3	11.4
	June	57 818	30 141	27 261	2 880	27 677	52.1	9.6	11.7
	July	57 891	30 311	27 342	2 970	27 580	52.4	9.8	12.0
	August	57 973	30 208	27 150	3 058	27 764	52.1	10.1	12.4
	September	58 054	30 259	27 156	3 103	27 795	52.1	10.3	12.4
	October	58 134	30 003	26 856	3 147	28 131	51.6	10.5	12.6
	November	58 215	29 801	26 676	3 125	28 414	51.2	10.5	12.4
	December	58 294	29 652	26 448	3 204	28 642	50.9	10.8	12.7
	Annual	57 854	29 678	26 621	3 057	28 176	51.3	10.3	12.4
2016	January	58 366	29 565	26 275	3 290	28 802	50.7	11.1	13.0
	February	58 433	29 680	26 456	3 224	28 753	50.8	10.9	12.7
	March	58 493	30 016	26 993	3 023	28 478	51.3	10.1	11.9
	April	58 558	30 462	27 638	2 824	28 097	52.0	9.3	11.0
Source: TUIK