ABSTRACT

The International Labour Organization (ILO) has warned of young workers

facing a dangerous mix of high unemployment, increased inactivity and
precarious work in developed countries, as well as persistently high working
poverty in the developing world. Living in a developing country, Turkey’s
young population experiences similar problems with unemployment and the
transition to the labour market. Officially unemployment stood at nearly 11% in
the first quarter of 2018 and the rate of youth unemployment was higher than
twice the average of OECD countries – although the number of young people
in higher education skyrocketed. However, the present troubles of Turkey’s
youth in the labour market leave many of them questioning the meaning of
acquiring an education, as well as the efficiency of the education system itself.
It is common knowledge that higher education graduates in the 20–24 age
group are more likely to be unemployed than adults who have lesser
qualifications and young women are affected worst. Any effort to address the
issue will need to draw on our understanding of various factors like labour
market structure, demography, gender, and migration dynamics underlying
unemployment and labour relations in Turkey today. This article evaluates
these factors with a view to assessing their impact on the young generation of
Turkey and shed light on youth unemployment and labour issues in the
country.
KEYWORDS:

 Youth
 young people
 unemployment
 youth unemployment
 Turkey

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes
1. This is the so-called ‘gig economy’ which is strengthened by the
development of online platforms.

2. The demographic window of opportunity in Turkey is predicted to remain

open until 2040 (Hoşgör and Tansel Citation2010).

3. Second demographic transition predicts unilinear change toward very low

fertility and a diversity of union and family types. The primary driver of these
changes is a powerful, inevitable and irreversible shift in attitudes and norms
in the direction of greater individual freedom and self-actualization (Zaidi and
Philip Morgan Citation2017, 473).

4. In total, 48.3% of the Turkish population is under the age 30. The share of
sub-age groups shows no signs of population change over time among the
youth; e.g. the share of 15–19 age group is 8.4%, the share of 20–24 age
group is 8%, and the share of 25–29 age group is 8%.
Source: https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/national-policies/en/content/youthwiki/
overview-turkey.

5. Unfortunately, such comprehensive youth policies are lacking in Turkey. For

discussions over youth policy in Turkey see Yentürk, Kurtaran, and
Nemutlu Citation2008; Yurttagüler, Oy, and Kurtaran Citation2014;
Lüküslü Citation2016.

6. Please see The Global Gender Gap Report 2017, prepared by the World
Economic Forum. In this report, Turkey is ranked 131st out of 144 countries in
terms of gender equality, putting it behind many other Asian, Latin American
and African developing countries.

7. Marriage is demographically important in Turkey for its commonness and

the fact that almost all births are in wedlock. The Demography and Health
Survey 2013 shows that the median age at first marriage is increasing. The
average age at marriage is 26.8 for males and 23.6 for females.

8. In agricultural areas, women’s participation is regarded as ‘normal’ due to

the nature of agricultural work, but this labour mostly assumes the form of
‘unpaid family labour’.

9. See Eurostat, http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/

Early_leavers_from_education_and_training.

10. See OECD, Society at a Glance 2016: Spotlight on Youth –

Turkey, https://www.oecd.org/turkey/sag2016-turkey.pdf.

11. The aim of the employment subsidy program is (i) to encourage the
employment of disadvantaged groups (females and youth) and (ii) to mitigate
the adverse labour market effects of the 2008 crisis. The program was put into
action on 1 July 2008 with Law 5763 and initially introduced with a one-year
participation period, then extended to 30 June 2010, with Law 5838. This
reform package has mainly targeted young men (ages between 18 and 29)
and women above 18 who were not employed as a tax-registered worker in
the preceding 6 months. The aim was to create new employment without
replacing the existing workers; therefore, subsidies were only given to new
employees hired in addition to the yearly average of the number of workers
employed before the program. The program offered a direct subsidy to
employers by reducing the employers’ contribution to social security payment
of new hires for five years (Yeldan Citation2017, 226).
12. Until the 2000s, active labour market policies (ALMPs) were not a part of
Turkey’s national employment strategies. For ALMPs, İŞKUR carries out the
following activities: vocational training programs, trainings for
entrepreneurship, on-the-job training programs and public benefit work
programs (iskur.gov.tr).

13. We see some different living arrangements as well in Turkey: living alone,
living with cohabits and/or home mates. But all these kinds of arrangements
need family support or paid work.

Additional information
Notes on contributors
Kezban Çelik

Kezban Çelik is a professor in sociology department at TED University, Ankara,

Turkey. In her MA, she studied value of children in Turkey. In PhD dissertation, she
had realized research on youth unemployment and unemployment experiences of
youth in Ankara and Şanlıurfa, Turkey. She continues to study on sociology of youth.

G. Demet Lüküslü

G. Demet Lüküslü is a professor in sociology department at Yeditepe University,

Istanbul, Turkey. After graduating from Marmara University in Istanbul in 2000, she
continued her studies in Paris, France at Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences
Sociales (EHESS). In her MA and PhD dissertations, she had realized researches on
youth in Turkey. Her PhD dissertation titled “The Contemporary Turkish Youth: The
End of ‘The Myth of Youth’?” is being prepared for publication in Turkish. She
continues to realize researches on sociology of youth.