Turkey witnessed the initiation of another national mobilization campaign last week on Feb. 7, when President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan urged Turkish businesspeople to improve the falling employment rates. According to the latest figures released by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat), the rising trend in unemployment in Turkey continued as it rose by 1.3 percent last October, compared to the same time in 2015, bringing the country's unemployment rate to 11.8 percent. It raised alarm among Turkish authorities and was included in government discussions.Recent initiatives, including the Centers of Attraction in Eastern Turkey and loans provided for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) - especially exporting SMEs - aim to boost the country's employment numbers.Minister of Customs and Trade Bülent Tüfenkçi confirmed that the chairs of chambers and commodity exchanges as well as representatives of the business world have pledged to support the president's call to improve employment numbers.Reminding that the government was providing an additional TL 735 ($201) contribution for the employment, Tüfenkçi said the government wanted to design 2017 as a year of investments and hoped it will witness substantial improvements in employment rates.The minister also confirmed that the government would pay the employer's premium costs, ensuing new employments in 2017. Claiming that the government has a target of securing some 1.5 million jobs, Tüfenkçi said, "We can rearticulate this target as 2million with the support of the private sector."Immediately after the president's call for increasing the employment rate, the Turkish business world demonstrated its support and pledged to contribute to the employment campaign.TIM to give biggest support with 300,000 jobsTurkish Exporters Assembly (TİM) Chair, Mehmet Büyükekşi, announced that they, as the exporters, will provide the biggest support with around 300,000 jobs to the employment mobilization initiated by President Erdoğan.Büyükekşi also said they were headed towards the U.S. and Russia in exports, and that 12 new countries were in its radars.Speaking at a press conference, where "Exporters Tendency Survey for 2016 Q4 realization and 2017 Q1 expectations" was released, TİM Chair Mehmet Büyükekşi described President Erdoğan's call as "a national mobilization," saying, "We will be the leading actors in the national mobilization.""The prime minister has presented us an allocated resource of TL 12 billion. We, as exporters, say: We are in. We will participate in new employment mobilization with an additional 1 million jobs," Büyükekşi said, pledging that he will also support the mobilization, personally, by creating 2,000 new jobs at his own firm.Elaborating on how they would participate in the employment drive, at the meeting, Mehmet Büyükekşi said their aim is to raise exports from $142.6 billion to $155 billion this year, in comparison to the previous year, while also increasing the number of exporting firms from 67,000 to 70,000 and employment from 3.08 million to 3.4 million this year."So, we will create more than 300,000 new jobs. As exporters, we are targeting to create at least 30 percent of the 1 million new jobs," he said.250,000 new employment opportunities from MÜSİADNail Olpak, the Chair of the Independent Industrialists' and Businessmen's Association (MÜSİAD), in a written statement said, everyone should take responsibility to build a stronger Turkey, stressing that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's call for employment mobilization held great importance for the country's future.Pointing out that the increase in employment would mean more spins in economic wheels, more production, more added value, and acceleration in the speed of development, Olpak said: "Previously, we have expressed our support for the President's call for mobilization and now concrete steps should be taken."Noting that, as MÜSİAD, they take responsibility within the scope of the employment mobilization to which the government has made significant contributions by meeting on-the-job trainings as well as the Social Security Institution (SGK) and tax on the minimum wage, Olpak said: "And we say 'We are also in this mobilization.' With 11,000 members and 50,000 member companies, we have made a comprehensive evaluation with our board members and branch presidents, as Turkey's most extensive nongovernmental organization both in and outside the country.""As a result of the evaluation we made by considering the different conditions of the regions, we have set out to employ an average of five people from each of our 50,000 member companies, thus creating some 250,000 new employment opportunities," Olpak said, adding that while some businesses will add 100 or even 1000 jobs, some will create fewer due to their sizes.Yıldız Holding to pitch in with 5,000 jobsYıldız Holding Chairman, Murat Ülker said this year, they will invest TL 800 million and add at least 5,000 more jobs in Turkey, thus, increasing the employment rate in the country by more than 10 percent.Touching on the importance of youth employment in his speech at the opening of a new store, Ülker said they, as Yıldız Holding Family, have provided jobs for 56,000 people, 40,000 of whom are employed in Turkey."Considering over 50,000 farmers from whom we receive our raw materials, distributors, sales representatives, and third party companies from which we receive service, we assume responsibility for close to a million people," Ülker said.He underlined that the young population needs to work and produce, and that the businesspeople should provide them with this opportunity.Turkcell promıses to create 2,300 new jobsTurkcell Group also announced that its plan to employ 2,300 people this year to respond to the needs of newly emerging investments.General Manager of Turkcell Kaan Terzioğlu said the Turkcell Group works with the vision of leadership in the integrated telecom services market, while making investments that will strengthen their infrastructure in this direction they will also strengthen their human resources in line with their customers' new and developing needs."We have 16,000 employees who work to ensure the highest customer satisfaction. We will further strengthen our human resources with another 2,300 people who will join us in 2017.