Erdogan announces an initiative to employ youth and enhance the labor market economy

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced the launch of the “Eshkor Youth” program, an initiative aimed at supporting and employing a million students over the next four years, as part of a comprehensive strategy to enhance the labor market and achieve more stability in employment rates, according to the Daily Sabah newspaper. Turkish.

Details of the new initiative

During the launch of the program in Ankara, Erdogan explained that the program, which is run by the Turkish Employment Corporation (İşkur), will provide financial support and practical training for thousands of young people with the aim of qualifying them for the labor market while continuing to study.

Erdogan said: “We aim to involve 200 thousand students in the program this year, with the number to reach one million students during the next four years,” noting that the state will bear the short -term insurance premiums for the participants.

The program will provide opportunities to acquire knowledge and experience in the fields of research and development, information and technology systems, in addition to training in job search, financial literacy, CV preparation, and job interview technologies.

Participants in the program will receive daily financial compensation with more than a thousand Turkish pounds, where students who attend 5 days a month can obtain 5415 pounds, while those who attend 14 days will receive about 15,162 pounds.

Trilogy

In addition to the youth program, the Turkish President revealed the “National Employment Strategy”, a 3 -year plan and focuses on several main axes, including:

• Enhancing gender equality in the labor market.
• Improving the skills alignment between job seekers and the needs of different sectors.
• Control informal employment through strict regulatory policies.
• Improving the comprehensiveness of the social security system and increasing the number of registered in it.
• Low unemployment rates and labor market stability.

According to the data of the Turkish Statistical Institute, the unemployment rate in Türkiye fell to 8.6% in November 2024 compared to 8.7% in the previous month. The unemployment rate among men was 7%, while 11.7% among women.

Although the government applied strict monetary and financial policies to combat inflation, which decreased to 42.12% in January 2025, the labor market showed strong resistance to economic fluctuations.

During the past year, Turkey witnessed an increase in the workforce by 925 thousand people, bringing the total workforce to 35.82 million people, while the number of workers increased to 32.75 million, an increase of 986 thousand people.

With regard to the participation of women in the labor market, Erdogan pointed out that the number of working women increased by 397 thousand women, and that their participation rate in the workforce increased by 1.1%, and this reflects the improvement in the government’s efforts to support women in the work environment.

Reducing unemployment and increasing employment rates

Through this strategy, the Turkish government seeks to achieve several goals by 2028, most notably:

• Reducing the unemployment rate to 7.5%.
• Raise the employment rate to 52.5%.
• Reducing informal employment rate to 23.4%.
• Reducing the unemployment rate among young people to 16.6%.
• Raising the percentage of women in the labor market to 40.1%.

The sectors targeted in the program

Several priority sectors were identified within the national employment strategy, including:

• Textile and ready -made clothes sector.
• Car sector.
• Steel and aluminum sector.
• Chemicals sector.
• The machinery and electricity sector.
• Tourism sector.

Erdogan stressed that “employment rates will witness a noticeable increase, and equal opportunities in the labor market will be enhanced,” noting that the measures will be taken to reduce discrimination and reduce informal employment.

He added: “New training programs will be developed to align the workforce with digital and environmental transformations, and this contributes to raising the efficiency of workers and enhancing productivity.”

The Ishkour Youth and National Employment Strategy Program is a major step within Türkiye’s long -term plan to achieve a stable and prosperous labor market.