The Turkish Employment Agency (İŞKUR), which placed 510,000 people into jobs in the first half of this year, has led the way for another development with its new phone application. People looking for jobs can see the available jobs close to them on the map, learn all the details with one click and apply for the suitable opening at that moment thanks to the application. Therefore, it might be possible to fill in the 750,000 vacant positions coming in the first six months of this year.
All the İŞKUR services can be reached via the Internet and İŞKUR develops its services on mobile platforms. All the agency's activities can be seen at esube.iskur.gov.tr via all browsers and devices. Jobs can be searched and applied for via smart phone, tablet and desktop. People can both post job advertisements and search for jobs with the application.
İŞKUR is providing services at nearly 4,000 points located at municipalities, social assistance and solidarity foundations and district governorship buildings. General Manager of İŞKUR Nusret Yazıcı put an emphasis on the importance of the domestic actors to combine supply and demand in the labor market. "Public employment institutions have a significant role in mobilizing domestic dynamics for public employment services," said Yazıcı. While employment increases of around 5 million have been actualized within the last five years, 2.8 million people were placed into jobs by İŞKUR in the same period.
The agency continues to support young people in terms of career plans and choice of profession. Students will be given consultancy services during the profession introduction days, which will be held in schools. Moreover, nearly 1 million issues of a magazine called "Support for Professional Choice" will be distributed to the students at the stage of choosing their professions. The magazine, touching on matters such as preparing resumes to European standards, skills looked for in the 21st century and technology use, will be a guide for young people to prepare themselves for job interviews.
The agency set up service points at ports to introduce people looking for jobs in the maritime sector to employers in the same field. Young people have been given education at the service points established at the ports in Istanbul, İzmir, Mersin, Antalya, Samsun and Trabzon since June 2015. People who would like to work in the maritime sector can directly apply for jobs they want and can benefit from the active labor force program. Investments in information sectors are increasing in parallel with the increase in the number of employees working in technology. It is aiming to bring in 10,000 information technologies specialists every year. The number of people employed in the information and communication sector will be increased by 50 percent. İŞKUR will support projects in this field and organize programs to develop the individual's skills.
İŞKUR announced a few months ago that it was unable to fill 100,000 vacant positions in April because of a labor shortage in some areas in Turkey and more than half of the problems stemmed from people who were not competent at a profession. Unemployment in Turkey has dropped to 10.6 percent in March, indicating a 0.6 percent decrease compared to the previous month and the lowest rate within the last five months, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) announced on June 15.
