Türkiye to end 2023 with single-digit unemployment, 4.4% growth

Türkiye eyes to conclude the year with single-digit unemployment and a growth rate of 4.4%, Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz said on Friday, hailing the positive streak in the gross domestic product (GDP) figures despite the early February earthquakes.

“In the January-September period, the number of employed individuals increased by 504,000 and our unemployment rate declined by 0.9% to 9.1%,” Yılmaz noted during the opening of the second edition of the “Istanbul Human Resources Forum” organized by the Presidency’s Human Resources Office in Istanbul.

“According to the unemployment rate published by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) in October, our current unemployment rate is 8.5%. This is the lowest unemployment rate in the last 11 years,” he explained.

Furthermore, the vice president expressed satisfaction with the drop in youth unemployment figures, noting that the latest figures show “a positive surprise.”

“The seasonally adjusted youth unemployment has decreased by about five points compared to the same month of the previous year. This is a significant achievement,” he noted.

“In our medium-term program, we estimated unemployment as 10.1% at the end of this year. The latest figures show a positive surprise. We will most likely close this year with single-digit unemployment,” he said.

Regarding the growth figures, Yılmaz said that the Turkish economy recorded a growth rate of 4.7% in the first nine months of this year, recalling that it expanded by 5.9% in the third quarter.

“We hope to end the year with a figure around 4.4%,” he noted.

“Our growth performance is crucial, especially in a period when the world is contracting, stagnation is particularly evident in Europe, earthquakes occur and many negative geopolitical developments take place in our surroundings,” Yılmaz said.

As part of his remarks during the HR forum, he also touched upon the digital transformation of both daily life and work life due to the impact of digitization and groundbreaking technologies.

He noted that digital transformation, and advancements in areas such as artificial intelligence, automation and data analytics “are changing the dynamics of the workforce, necessitating the acquisition of new skills and the continuous updating of existing ones.”