President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on February 4 announced a youth program that is expected to reach some 1 million students over the next four years, as he pledged to further improve the labor market and boost employment rates.

The initiative, called the “IŞKUR Youth Program,” which is led by the Turkish Employment Organization, aims to provide young people with the necessary skills and financial support while they continue their studies, Erdogan said during the opening 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,” the president said.

He also noted that the state will cover short-term insurance premiums for participants.

According to Erdogan, the program will offer young people opportunities to gain knowledge and experience in various fields such as research and development (R&D) and information and technology systems. It will also offer training in job search, financial literacy, resume preparation, and interview techniques.

Students will attend the program for up to three days a week and receive 1,083 TL ($30) per day, with those attending for five days a month receiving 5,415 TL and those attending for 14 days receiving approximately 15,162 TL.

Erdogan also unveiled the National Employment Strategy, a three-year program aimed at strengthening gender equality, developing skills adaptation, limiting informal employment, and making the social security system more inclusive.

Unemployment and inflation

According to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat), in November 2024, the unemployment rate in Turkey decreased to 8.6% from 8.7% in the previous month. This figure for men was 7%, for women – 11.7%.

The data indicate a still relatively stable labor market a year and a half after the government moved to tighter monetary and fiscal policies to curb inflation, which fell to 42.12% in January.

The central bank began cutting interest rates from 50% in December and cut them again to 45% last month, vowing to maintain a sufficiently tight policy to ensure further inflation reduction.

Officials promised to take measures to limit the negative impact on the labor market.

Over the past year, Turkey’s labor force grew by 925,000 to reach 35.82 million people, while the number of employed rose by 986,000 to 32.75 million, according to TurkStat.

According to Erdogan, the female labor force grew by 429,000 and female employment increased by 397,000.

“At this stage, I would like to emphasize 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 achieve an employment rate of 52.5% in the same year, according to a decree published in the Official Gazette on February 1.

According to the strategy, the informal employment rate is expected to drop 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 directions of the strategy, the effectiveness of employment policy will be increased to ensure the adaptation of skills at the sectoral and regional levels. The program will focus on such priority sectors as textiles and ready-made clothing, automotive, steel, aluminum, chemicals, machine building, electricity, and tourism.

“The employment rate will be increased and equal opportunities in the workforce will be strengthened,” Erdogan said, also mentioning measures that will be taken to combat discrimination and reduce informal employment.

“Our workforce will be adapted to the processes of digital and green transformation through the development of educational programs and new models,” he added.