Regional Labor Markets in Turkey

Regional unemployment is a poorly documented topic in Turkey. In this research brief, we analyze unemployment in 26 NUTS2 regions in Turkey from 2005 to 2011. Given that agricultural employment varies considerably across regions, we focus on the non-agricultural unemployment. Using regional agricultural and non-agricultural employment data as well as total labor force and unemployment data released by TurkStat, we estimate the number of unemployed persons in non-agricultural sectors and the non- agricultural unemployment rate. Non-agricultural unemployment rates vary by more than twofold across regions in Turkey. Very generally, we can say that unemployment is lower in the West than in the East. Manisa, Balýkesir and Bursa regions have the lowest unemployment rates in 2011. On the contrary, Agri, Van and Gaziantep regions have the highest unemployment rates. However, there are also regions with high unemployment rates in the West regions with low unemployment rates in the East. For example, Ýzmir and Kocaeli, which are two developed regions compared to the rest of Turkey, have non-agricultural unemployment rates above Turkey’s average. The underlying cause is high increases in labor force due to the high levels of migration to these regions. The evolution of regional unemployment is also different across regions. The overall unemployment rate slightly declined in the period of 2005-11 while unemployment rate decreased in 12 regions and increased in the remaining 14 regions. The largest declines in unemployment rates in the last six years were in Malatya, Adana, Kirikkale and Ankara regions. Agri, Antalya, Van and Zonguldak were the regions with the highest increase in unemployment rates. Zonguldak was the only region with a decline in non-agricultural employment, albeit limited, in the last six years. Clearly, Zonguldak is facing serious economic challenges. Note that increase in non-agricultural employment in Antalya was significantly below average as well. The findings indicate that regional unemployment has very different dynamics. Regions where unemployment rate decreased due to strong increase in employment (Balanced Developing Regions) are situated on the North-South axis in Middle Anatolia and Middle-East Anatolia. Regions where unemployment rate decreased due to weak increases in employment coupled with even weaker increases in labor force (Cooling Regions) cluster around North West Anatolia and Middle Black Sea Region. Regions where strong increases in employment were subdued by stronger increases in labor force and thus unemployment increased (Regions under pressure) are located in East and South East (intra-regional migration). Industrialized regions like Tekirdag, Izmir and Kocaeli (inter-regional migration) are also in this category.