President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Tuesday announced a youth program that is envisaged to benefit about 1 million students over the next four years, as he vowed to further improve the labor market and increase employment rates.
The initiative, called IŞKUR Youth Program, led by the Turkish Employment Organization, aims to equip young people with the necessary skills and financial support while they continue their education, Erdoğan told the launching event in Ankara.
"We aim for 200,000 students to benefit from the program this year and a total of 1 million students over the next four years," said the president. He also mentioned that the state will cover the short-term insurance premiums for participants.
The program will offer youth opportunities to gain knowledge and experience in various fields, such as research and development (R&D) and information and technology systems, according to Erdoğan. It will also offer training in job searching, financial literacy, resume preparation and interview techniques.
Students will attend the program for up to three days per week and will receive TL 1,083 ($30) per day, with those attending for five days a month receiving TL 5,415, and those attending for 14 days receiving approximately TL 15,162."
Erdoğan also unveiled the National Employment Strategy, a three-year program that seeks to strengthen gender equality, develop skill adaptation, curb informal employment and make the social security system more inclusive.
Türkiye's unemployment rate declined to 8.6% in November 2024 from 8.7% the previous month, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat). The rate for men stood at 7% and 11.7% for women.
The data indicated a still relatively stable labor market a year and a half into the government's shift to tighter monetary and fiscal policies to curb inflation, which eased to 42.12% in January.
The central bank began cutting its interest rate from 50% in December and trimmed it again to 45% last month while pledging to maintain a sufficiently tight policy to ensure continued disinflation.
Officials pledged to take measures to limit the negative impact on the labor market.
Over the last year, Türkiye’s labor force increased by 925,000, reaching 35.82 million people, while employment numbers rose by 986,000 to 32.75 million, according to TurkStat.
Women's workforce has risen by 429,000, and women's employment has grown by 397,000, Erdoğan said.
"At this point, I would like to particularly highlight that we have increased the female labor force participation rate by 1.1 points and the female employment rate by 1 point," he added.
The National Employment Strategy aims to reduce the unemployment rate to 7.5% by 2028 and to achieve an employment rate of 52.5% in the same year, according to a decree published in the Official Gazette on Saturday.
Under the strategy, the informal employment rate is expected to be reduced to 23.4% by 2028, and the youth unemployment rate to 16.6%. The government aims to increase the labor force participation rate to 6.7% and the female labor force participation rate to 40.1%.
According to the main policies of the strategy, the effectiveness of employment policies aimed at ensuring skill adaptation at sectoral and regional levels will be increased. The program will focus on the priority sectors identified as textiles and ready-made clothing, automotive, steel, aluminum, chemicals, machinery, electricity and tourism.
“Employment rates will be increased, and equal opportunities in the workforce will be strengthened,” Erdoğan said, also mentioning measures that will be taken to combat discrimination and reduce informal employment.
“Our labor force will be adapted to the processes of digital and green transformation through the development of educational programs and new models,” he added.
