How has COVID 19 affected Turkey s labor market

Method The survey was conducted by the beneficiary pool of the Mahir Eller project4, European Union (EU) funding and cooperation with the Chambers of Commerce and/or Industry in 12 various provinces5 under the partnership of TOBB and TEPAV to better understand how COVID-19 affects employment of Turkish citizens and Syrians, Participants of the project were selected from those who stated in their a. [...] Considering the vocational qualifications of the survey participants and the sector equivalents in VQA (Vocational Qualification Authority), 13 different sectors are represented in the 8 The nationality and gender distribution of the participants in the COVID-19 survey was determined based on the distribution in the beneficiary pool of the Mahir Eller project. [...] The sectoral distributions in the rest of the text are based on the sector counterparts in VQA of the professional qualifications that individuals have. [...] Workers in the ”social and personal services" sector were found to be more affected by the pandemic in terms of job and income loss than any other sector represented in the survey.11 The sector under scrutiny took a hit with the Ministry of Interior’s announcement of “Coronavirus Measures” of March 11th calling for the temporary suspension of activities. [...] Although 30.9 percent of the workers in the construction sector stated that they witnessed no changes in their work status, 85.2 percent of the workers in the sector reported loss of income due to the pandemic.