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1. Labour market situation in the country

2. Definitions and concepts

Labour market situation in the country

The first legal arrangement in Türkiye relating to public employment services is the Labour Law of 1936 and No 3008 which foresees prohibition of private offices engaged in employment services and conduct of such employment services under public monopoly. In line with provisions of this Law the Public Employment Agency was established in 1946 under the Law No 4837. According to the Law duties of the Agency were “to find jobs for workers compatible with their qualifications and to find employees for employers compatible with theirs”.

The Public Employment Agency concentrated in 1960s on activities relating to sending workers to foreign countries due to increasing labour need of industrialized countries, in particular Germany, and since they meet such need through foreign workers. In 1970s, due to economic problems in many countries and increase in unemployment its roles and responsibilities relating to employment development became intense and the Agency had a central role in development and implementation of employment policies.

The recession in industrialized countries after the Petroleum Crisis and increasing unemployment led to suspension of labour demand from foreign countries. Public Employment Agency failing to provide services needed by the labour market due to this progress and the liberal policies put into force intensively entered a new period with the Law on Unemployement Insurance No 4447 put into force in 1999;  in this new period an intense change and development started for the Public Employment Agency which was rapidly changing with the new duties assigned to it.

In parallel to changes in public employment institutions which recently became actors leading the labour market with active and passive labour policies implemented and which continuously follow up the labour market in addition to conventional employment activities changing labour markets, increasing duties and responsibilities as well as harmonization with the European Union have required the Agency to get restructured. Therefore, İŞKUR, which is Türkiye's national public body for employement, was instilled with a structure that is able to implement active and passive labour policies effectively by continuously following up the labour market in addition to conventional employment services with the Law No 4904 published in the Official Gazette of 5 July 2003.

KOSGEB (Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Development Organization) which was established with the Law No 3624 in 1990 and which is the most important public establishment in Türkiye engaged in entrepreneurship had provided services and support only for SMEs (Small and Medium Scale Enterprises) engaged in manufacturing activities until 2009. However, increase in the potential of industries other than the manufacturing industry in Türkiye in terms of generation of economic added value and employment and demands from SMEs engaged in non-manufacturing industries brought the necessity to extent target group of the KOSGEB to cover all SMEs into question. Accordingly, “The Law No 5891 on Amendment of the Law on Establishment of KOSGEB No 3624” was published in the Official Gazette of 5 May 2009 and No 27219. The legal basis necessary for support of non-manufacturing SMEs by KOSGEB was provided with the said Law amendment.

The working-age population (15-64 years) in Türkiye constituted 66.5% in 2007 and increased to 68.4% in 2024. Accordingly, Türkiye is still experiencing a period in which population growth continues, albeit at a decreasing rate, and this phase is referred to as the "demographic transition period." In general, the increase in the total population also leads to an increase in the working-age population. Considering Türkiye's demographic characteristics, non-agricultural industries need to create employment opportunities for more than 450,000 people annually to maintain the unemployment rate at a reasonable level. However, continuous growth in the working-age population, the decline of employment in the agricultural sector due to economic progress, and the increasing tendency of women, whose educational background is improving, to participate in the non-agricultural workforce are the main factors that contribute to the rising labor supply. Additionally, while the proportion of the 0-14 age group declined from 26.4% in 2007 to 20.9% in 2024, the share of the 65 and older population increased from 7.1% to 10.6% in the same period,

According to 2024 data from TÜİK (Turkish Statistical Institute), the number of employed persons reached 32 million 620 thousand, increasing by 988 thousand compared to the previous year, and the employment rate rose to 49.5% (66.9% for men and 32.5% for women). During this period, the number of employed persons in the agriculture sector was 4 million 827 thousand, in industry 6 million 746 thousand, in construction 2 million 162 thousand, and in services 18 million 886 thousand. The share of the service sector in total employment increased to 57.9%, while industry accounted for 20.7%, construction 6.6%, and agriculture 14.8%. Compared to the previous year, employment increased by 132 thousand in agriculture, 35 thousand in industry, 165 thousand in construction, and 656 thousand in services.

The labor force in 2024 reached 35 million 733 thousand, increasing by 837 thousand from the previous year, with a labor force participation rate of 54.2% (72.0% for men and 36.8% for women). The number of unemployed persons aged 15 and over in Türkiye was 3 million 113 thousand, a decrease of 151 thousand compared to the previous year. The unemployment rate declined by 0.7 percentage points, reaching 8.7% (7.1% for men and 11.8% for women).

According to TÜİK 2024 data, the youth unemployment rate (ages 15-24) decreased by 1.1 percentage points, reaching 16.3%. The youth unemployment rate was 13.1% for men and 22.3% for women. Meanwhile, the distribution of young people employed by sector was 14.8% in agriculture, 20.7% in industry, 6.6% in construction, and 57.9% in services.

The labour market in Türkiye is characterized by strong labour supply due to rapid population increase, small scale enterprises covering the major portion of the employment rate and various wage levels. It is known that some important structural reasons underlie such characteristics of the Turkish labour market. Which are in general;

• Young population increasing with the increase in general population;
• Difficulties encountered by educated labour force in finding job in terms of labour demand;
• Those with educational background lower than high school grade including illiterate people composing more than half of the total labour force;

High share of agricultural industry in employment rate in terms of employment rate by industries and higher rate of informality.

Definitions and concepts

When assessing the youth employment in terms of existing institutional structures and legislation, according to Article 4 of the “Regulation on Rules and Procedures relating to Employment of Workers” the workers between 15 and 18 years old are “young workers”, the workers between 14 and 15 who completed their primary school education are “child workers”. On the other hand, in accordance with Article 71 “Age of employment and prohibition of employment of children” of the Labour Law No 4857 which is regulated by taking into account the European Union Directive 94/33/EC those younger than 18 years old are divided into two groups “child” and “young workers”. According to expressions used in the Law (art. 71/III, art. 73/I and art. 85/I, art. 87), those between 15 and 18 years old are defined as “young”. However, those younger than 15 years old are defined as “child”. 

 

Non-Institutional population: Comprises all the population excluding the residents of dormitories of universities, orphanage, rest homes for elderly persons, special hospitals, prisons and military barracks etc.

Non-Institutional working age population:  Indicates the population 15 years of age and over within the non-institutional population.

Labour force: Comprises all employed persons and all unemployed.

Labour force participation rate: Indicates the ratio of the labour force to non-institutional working age population.

Employment: Non-institutional working age population included in the group of persons at work and persons not at work specified below are the employed population.

Persons at work: Persons engaged in any activity during the reference week for at least one hour as a regular employee, casual employee, employer, self employed or unpaid family worker.

Persons not at work: Regular employee, casual employee, employer, self employed or unpaid family who have a job but away from job during the entire reference week for various reasons are considered as employed, if there is a tie with job according to the absence reason from job. 

Persons who are not at work during the reference week due to official holidays or annual leave, sick leave, working hour arrangements, job related training or legal maternity/paternity leave are employed without the need for additional criteria.

Persons who are not at work to raise a child (parental leave, unpaid leave for childcare) are considered as employed only if they have an assurance of return to work within a period of less than 3 months or less and/or they continue to receive job related wage/salary during their absence.

Persons who are not at work because of off-season/low season are considered as employed only if they performing any task or duty during the off-season period. 

Persons who are not at work due to the other reasons such as bad weather, there was no work, slowing down or stopping of work for technical or economic reasons, participating a training unrelated to job are considered as employed only if they have an assurance of return to work within a period of 3 months or less.

The members of producer cooperatives and apprentices or trainees who are working to gain any kind of benefit (income in cash or in kind, social security, traveling cost, pocket money etc.) are considered to be employed.

Employment rate: Employment rate is the ratio of employed persons to the non-institutional working age population.

Unregistered employment: Persons who are not registered to any social security institution due to main job worked in reference week.

Underemployment: In the 16th International Conference of Labour Statisticians, organized by ILO, the existing definition of underemployment was revised considering the measuring problems and new concepts called as “time-related underemployment” and “inadequate employment” were introduced in order to measure underemployment more accurately. 

Inadequate employment: In case persons are not covered in the “time-related underemployment” concept; persons employed in the reference week but were also looking for a job to replace present job or as an additional job within last 4 weeks and were available to start if could find. 

Time-related underemployment: Persons employed in the reference week who actually worked less than 40 hours as total (in main job and additional job/s) were willing to work additional hours and were available to do so. 

Persons unemployed: The unemployed comprises all persons 15 years of age and over who were not employed during the reference period had used at least one active channel for seeking a job during the last four weeks and were available to start work within two weeks.

Active job search channels are:

• Contacted employers directly       

• Asked friends, relatives, etc. to find a job 

• Applied Turkish Employment Office (İŞKUR) to find a job

• Applied or contacted private employment offices / human resources offices

• Searched for a suitable job for newspapers, magazines, the internet or posted ads

• Post or answer a job advertisement in the newspaper

• Submitted or updated resume for job application online

• Take an oral or written exam/interview to find a job

• Made any preparations to start your own business

Persons who have already found a job and will start to work within 3 months, or established his/her own job but were waiting to complete necessary documents to start work were also considered to be unemployed.

Unemployment rate: Is the ratio of unemployed persons to the labour force.

Persons not in labour force: Includes persons 15 years of age and over who are neither unemployed nor employed.

Potential labour force: Referring to persons not in employment who express an interest in this form of work but for whom existing conditions limit their active job search and/or their availability.

Supplementary indicators for labour force

In the 19th International Conference of Labour Statisticians, held by ILO, alternative indicators have needed for a number of reasons such as the current unemployment rate being insufficient solitary to measure the labour market. In addition to basic labour force indicators, has been defined supplementary labour force indicators which are "time-related underemployment", "potential labour force", "unemployment".

In the LFS questionnaire, the necessary arrangements were made in 2021 accordingly. The unemployment rate, combined rate of time-related underemployment and unemployment, combined rate of unemployment and potential labour force and composite measure of labour underutilization released in January 2021 results.

Neither in employment nor education and training: Young persons that are unemployed and inactive and also not in education and training are considered to be NEET.

Neither in employment nor education and training (NEET) rate: It is the ratio of young population that are neither in employment nor education and training to the total young population.

Duration of job search: In the household labor force survey; "duration of job search" is predicated on which is described as the short one of the "job searching time" and "out of work time" criteria. 

It is calculated as the time interval between the time when a person left his/her last job and actually started looking for another job. For those, who are for the first time searching a job, the elapsed time beginning from they  start searching a job is predicated on.

Actual working hours: Total time spent at work and work- related activities in the reference week

The number of hours actually worked during the reference week includes all hours including extra hours, either paid or unpaid, but excludes the travel time between home and the place of work as well as the main meal breaks (normally taken at midday).