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EACEA National Policies Platform
Türkiye

Türkiye

3. Employment & Entrepreneurship

Last update: 28 November 2023

Introduction

The first legal regulation on public employment services in Turkey is the Labour Law (İş Kanunu) numbered 3008 and dated 1936. In line with these law provisions, the Turkish Employment Agency was founded by the Law no. 4837 (4837 sayılı Kanun) in 1946. In the concerned Law, the duty of the Agency is determined as, “finding jobs for the workers matching their qualifications and finding workers for the employees with matching qualifications for the jobs”. The Agency engaged in different activities according to the conjuncture changing through the years. Going under a transformation by the Law no. 4904 promulgated in the Official Gazette dated 5 July 2003, in addition to its classic services for finding jobs and workers, the İŞKUR (Turkish Employment Agency) was turned into a structure that could effectively implement active and passive labour force policies by monitoring labour force market all the time.

When the General Situation in Labour Force Market in Turkey is looked into, decrease in the agricultural employment while able-to-work population is increasing, aspiration of the woman population with gradually increasing education level to work at higher rates in jobs other than agricultural ones are primary factors to cause high increases in labour force supply for a long time.  Therefore, the labour force supply is increasing.

The main actor in employment in Turkey is the (İŞKUR) Turkish Employment Agency. Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Science, Industry and Technology, Ministry of Customs and Trade, Ministry of Development are other important actors in this field. In entrepreneurship in Turkey, KOSGEB (Small and Medium Business Development and Support Administration) that was founded in 1990 by the Law no. 3624 is the most important public organisation. Development Agencies are also significant actors in the entrepreneurship field as to stir public and civil society cooperation locally.

Through Profession Information Centres organised countrywide, İŞKUR serve as profession consultancy for the youth who are at the verge of choosing a profession, are starting to train on a profession, and as job consultancy for the ones who are to be working for the first time, have been unemployed for a long time, the unemployed receiving unemployment insurance pay, the adults who want to acquire a profession, change profession, advance in their career. Furthermore, for the integration of the youth into the labour force market, the Highest Level Measures for Enhancing Flexibility and Security in the Labour Force Market and the Highest Level Measures to Encourage A Good Business-Life Balance are taken.