1,000 2,500 4,000 5,500 7,000 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 5,297 5,464 5,305 5,483 5,470 6,015 6,097 6,143 5,683 0 1,500 3,000 4,500 6,000 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 5,675 5,383 5,297 5,331 5,315 4,955 4,751 4,704 4,496 0 4,000 8,000 12,000 16,000 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 15,777 15,247 14,616 13,892 13,234 12,771 12,266 11,586 10,986 0 525 1,050 1,575 2,100 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 1,992 2,095 1,987 1,914 1,912 1,782 1,709 1,676 1,431 0 7,500 15,000 22,500 30,000 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 15,777 15,247 14,616 13,892 13,234 12,771 12,266 11,586 10,986 1,992 2,095 1,987 1,914 1,912 1,782 1,709 1,676 1,431 5,675 5,383 5,297 5,331 5,315 4,955 4,751 4,704 4,496 5,297 5,464 5,305 5,483 5,470 6,015 6,097 6,143 5,683 28,738 28,189 27,205 26,621 25,933 25,524 24,821 24,110 22,594 Employment Agriculture Industry Construction Services 12% 12% 11% 11% 11% 11% 11% 11% 10% 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 13% 12% 12% 12% 11% 10% 10% 10% 9% 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Employment Distribution (Thousand People) Employment Distribution (Thousand People) Services Distribution (Thousand People) Agriculture Distribution (Thousand People) Construction Distribution (Thousand People) Women Emp. Rate (%) Male Emp. Rate (%) Agriculture Industry Services Construction Table 10. Employment Data 86 TURKEY’s 2nd VNR 2019 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS “Strong Ground towards Common Goals” With the objectives of increasing employers’ competitiveness, promoting registered employment, and especially reducing the costs of SMEs, and thereby achieving an increase employment, the scope of Minimum Wage Support that was implemented in 2016 was extended in 2019. With amendments to the Law on Unemployment Insurance, additional employment incentives were introduced to lower the burden on employers and increase employment. With this incentive, employers received premium, wage or tax subsidies for each personnel to be employed in addition to the number of workers in the previous year. The public sub-contractor practice was terminated which imposed limitations on individual and collective bargaining rights of public workers such as wages, annual leave and severance payments. The incentive called “One from Me and One from You” introduced in 2018 in the manufacturing industry offers wage, premium and tax subsidies for each worker that employers who have master’s certificates in the manufacturing industry will employ in addition to the average number of workers. Private employment offices provide intermediary services using the means of communication between employers and employees. In 2016, private employment offices were authorised to establish temporary working relationships, representing an important step to make labour market flexible. The ongoing need is still important to define occupations that will meet the need for sub-professionals, and re-organise the vocational education in line with the needs of labour market needs. In line with the objectives of utilizing the qualified human resource and make use of international labour force, necessary adjustments were made to the Law on International Labour. The e-permit application was operationalised to receive, evaluate and finalise the working permit applications online in fast, efficient and secure manner. The Turquoise Card system was introduced in 2017 offering work and residence permits to foreigners with indefinite term, possibility of acquiring Turkish citizenship, along with indefinite residence permits to the foreigners’ partner and dependent children. One of the biggest problems of employment in Turkey is female and youth unemployment. The youth unemployment rate in 2018 was 26.1% for females and 17.8% for males. For the overall working population of ages 15 to 64, female unemployment rate was 14.2% and male unemployment rate was 9.6% in 2018. The National Employment Strategy issued in 2014 had four main axes: to strengthen the relation of education and employment in the context of full and productive employment and development of decent work; provide security and flexibility in the labour markets; increase employment for vulnerable segments; and strengthen the relationship between employment and social protection. In recent years, labour force participation rate have increased especially for women. The rate of unregistered employment has decreased and that of decent works increased. However, since the increase in employment rates fell behind the increase in labour force, the expected reduction in unemployment rate has not been achieved. Extensive regulations were implemented regarding unregistered employment in the framework of Social Security Reform. In 2000, the rate of informal employment was 53.3%, and receded to 33.4% by the 2017 end. Informal employment in non-agricultural sectors between paid workers decreased to 16.4% in 2017 from the level of 17.5% in 2014. In line with the objective of increasing female and youth employment, policies were adopted to make regulations that offered employers insurance premium incentives who employ female and young workers. The Action Plan on Female Employment (2016-2018) focuses on enabling women to acquire vocational skills to increase their employment, directing them to work, and increasing the opportunities for women to access the labour market. In this context, it is observed that the policies introduced in the field of education have been effective. In 2018, only 16.1% of women who were illiterate participated in the labour force while 71.6% of women who were higher education graduates entered the labour market. The project Promoting Formal Female Employment through Home-Based Child Care aims to reduce the cost of employing babysitters, thus increasing the formal employment of babysitters who usually work informally, and facilitate the return to the labour market of women who have given birth and are under the risk of staying away from the labour market. Under the project, 11,360 mothers benefited directly and 15,232 babysitters benefited indirectly. Additionally, to increase the female participation into the labour force, incentives were introduced in 2018 for employers to offer day- care services. 87 TURKEY’s 2nd VNR 2019 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS “Strong Ground towards Common Goals”
PROMOTING REGISTERED EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN THROUGH INSTITUTIONAL CHILD CARE SERVICES SDG Targets 8.5 – 4.2 – 10.2 Executing Entity Social Security Institution Start & End Dates 2019 – 2021 The project aims to encourage women to participate in or return to registered employment or remain in the labour market by providing support on institutional child care to women who have young children and are under the risk of leaving employment. Accordingly, 10,250 mothers and children will be paid 100 EUR of institutional child care support, and 13,000 mothers will be paid 100 EUR of one-off fixed cost support. Of the project beneficiaries, those who lose jobs during the project period, the grant will continue to be paid for 3 months provided that the child remains in preschool and/or attend the care institution. In addition, unemployed women who apply to the project will be accorded certain flexibility on final registration dates to boost their motivation to find jobs. The rate of those who were neither in employment nor in education or training in Turkey decreased from 40% in 2003 to 24.5% in 2018. The National Youth Employment Action Plan issued in 2011 was an important step to produce specific policies on reducing youth unemployment. The Basic and Vocational Skills Building Programme also contributed to the progress in terms of policy development. A total of 6,778 sessions of Applied Entrepreneurship Training was delivered in 2018 to identify the youth entrepreneurial capacities, 90,176 young people benefited from free of charge training and 520 young people started their businesses. It is important to improve youth employment to raise the qualified workforce needed especially in the field of high value-added production and innovation, and ensure that education matches the needs of the labour market. Considering the findings from the Child Labour Surveys conducted in 1994, 1999, 2006 and 2012, there was significant decrease in the number of child labour of age 6-17 despite the population increase in the same age group. The employment rate in children of age 6-17 was 15.2% in 1994, and decreased to 5.9% in 2012. Considering the number of employed children by gender, the number of employed boys was twice the number of girls although the number of both working boys and girls decreased in 1994-2012. Migration from rural areas and small towns to big and industrialised urban areas results in the unemployment of parents from lower educational backgrounds while financial difficulties may lead families to remove their children from school and put them to work. This is particularly observed to affect boys. The year 2018 was declared as the Year against Child Labour to increase public awareness on combating child labour. In the National Programme against Child Labour (2017- 2023), priority target groups were identified as “working on the street”, “heavy and hazardous works in small- and medium-scale businesses” and “mobile and temporary agricultural works in return for wage other than family work in agriculture”. This programme aims to undertake activities related to the elimination of child labour through a holistic and participatory national programme. The “Joint Declaration against Child Labour” was signed by the relevant ministries and NGOs to protect all children from child labour, especially from its worst forms, and prevent child labour. Anti-Child Labour Units were formed in all provinces to ensure cooperation and coordination among all relevant entities in line with the objective of prevention of child labour including particularly worst forms. Box 2. Technical Support Project on Coordination and Training for Employment (ISKEP) Under ISKEP, in cooperation with 12 municipalities, activities were planned to identify and address the problems of disadvantaged people in accessing the labour force, registering disadvantaged people and groups, and improving the employment and social protection services provided to them. Upon the completion of the project, there were Social Service Support desks established in 12 municipalities, 2,778 people directed to active labour market programmes, 8,249 disadvantaged individuals registered in the databank created, and 4,000 disadvantaged individuals and 3,500 Municipality personnel trained. Under the Programme on Improving the Social Integration and Employability of Disadvantaged People, activities were supported to remove the barriers to entering and facilitate access to labour market, expand relevant opportunities, and fight against discrimination. According to the Demographic and Residence Survey conducted in 2011, there were 4.5 million people with at least one disability in the age group of 15 and above. The number of women with disabilities was 2.6 million while the number of men with disabilities was 1.9 million. The labour force participation rates of men and female with disabilities were 35.4% and 12.45% respectively. Preventive and incentivising legal regulations were introduced on occupational safety and health in 2014-2016. The scope of the vocational qualification certification was expanded, particularly in highly hazardous sectors, and progress was made on measuring knowledge, skills and competences in the 88 TURKEY’s 2nd VNR 2019 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS “Strong Ground towards Common Goals”
labour market. However, 359,653 insured people had work accidents with 1,633 fatalities in 2017 despite the measures taken for purposes of occupational safety and health. The National Occupational Safety and Health Policy (2014- 2018) laid down seven main objectives: increasing the quality of and standardising activities in the field of occupational safety and health; improving the statistics and record system on work accidents and occupational diseases; reducing the work accident rate in all sectors including metal, mining and construction; identifying and collecting early diagnosis data for potential occupational diseases; increasing the activities to improve occupational safety and health in public and agriculture sectors; promoting the culture of occupational safety and health across society; and making Vocational Qualification Certificates (VQC) compulsory for highly hazardous works. Significant steps were taken towards the objectives set by the Occupational Safety and Health Council to improve the existing conditions in working life concerning occupational safety and health according to national and international standards, principles, and promote the safety culture across the country. An occupational safety and health management system was established to improve occupational safety and health conditions in the pilot sectors and provinces chosen under the project Improving Occupational Safety and Health to reduce work accidents and occupational diseases, and increase the safety awareness in society. In this context, activities were undertaken including risk assessment, performance monitoring, emergency planning etc. The Occupational Safety and Health Management System Guide, Management System Implementation Guide, Guide for Health Monitoring in Working Life, and Guide for Diagnosing Occupational and Work-Related Diseases were issued for relevant sectors. Although significant progress was made in the labour market, labour force participation, high unemployment rates especially among young people, low skilled labour, and informal employment remain as important issues. NEXT STEPS: The following policies will be implemented in the upcoming years to achieve SDG 8: • Ensuring improvement in vocational and technical education issues through labour market needs analyses and with the contributions of the private sector, • Maintaining structural reforms and increase the growth potential, • Developing an ecosystem which is supportive of financial technologies and make necessary arrangements accordingly, • Expanding day-care and preschool education services to increase the female participation in the labour market, • Consolidating employment incentives under a single law and practice, simplify the implementation, and ensure that incentives can be seen online as a whole, • Establishing a more efficient organisation in the triangle of employer-state-employee for purposes of occupational safety and health efforts, make improvement in the distribution of duties, powers and responsibilities, • Developing legislation for the university-industry cooperation and facilitate the economic growth and R&D- focused use of university facilities by the private sector, • Undertaking effective monitoring work through Anti-Child Labour Units, • Developing practices such as additional social benefits for critical working groups including farmer families to remain in the relevant sector. 89 TURKEY’s 2nd VNR 2019 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS “Strong Ground towards Common Goals”