{"id":46739,"date":"2011-11-16T10:11:02","date_gmt":"2011-11-16T08:11:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/?p=46739"},"modified":"2023-04-03T22:30:43","modified_gmt":"2023-04-03T19:30:43","slug":"are-turkish-youngsters-too-smart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2011\/11\/16\/are-turkish-youngsters-too-smart\/","title":{"rendered":"Are Turkish Youngsters Too Smart?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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by Justin Vela<\/p>\n
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Turkish university graduates struggling to find employment in their fields of study are often settling for menial part-time jobs until better times come around. The unemployment for Turks between the ages of 15 and 24 stands at 18.6 percent \u2013 nearly double the national average. (Photo: Justin Vela)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/fieldset>\n

To get a sense of the scope of Turkey\u2019s youth unemployment problem, you don\u2019t have to look much further than downtown Istanbul\u2019s inexpensive cafes, which are invariably jammed with 20-somethings during working hours. The country\u2019s challenge isn\u2019t simply one of creating more jobs to handle the rising tide of young people entering the work force, it\u2019s also a matter of creating quality positions that can meet the heightened expectations of job-seekers.<\/p>\n

Setting the stage for the unemployment conundrum is the demographic fact that more than half of Turkey\u2019s estimated population of 75 million people is under the age of 30. And not only are there more youngsters seeking employment, they tend to be better educated than their elders.<\/p>\n

Over the past decade, many 20-somethings in Turkey have become the first members of their respective families to attend university or other institutions of higher learning. Over the same period, the country has experienced robust economic growth — 8.2 percent in 2010, and averaging 6 percent annually from 2002-2008. But the growing economy hasn\u2019t been able to create jobs fast enough to handle the increasing number of youths entering the labor force. That has left many newly minted graduates unable to find a job to match their skills.<\/p>\n

Turkey\u2019s official overall unemployment rate stands at 9.6 percent. But the rate nearly doubles to 18.6 percent for Turks between the ages of 15 and 24. The unemployment rate is partly a reflection of a surge in the number of Turks graduating from universities, medical and vocational schools each year — up 155 percent since 2000 to 573,159 in 2010.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are too many young people,\u201d commented Ilayda Karakas, a 24-year-old who moved from the western city of Bursa to Istanbul in search of a job as a graphic designer. \u201cThere are too many universities. Too many people looking for the same job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unable to find jobs in their fields of specialty, many young Turks instead fall back on low-paid positions in fast-food chains or temporary work, most of which is unofficial or part of the country\u2019s massive grey economy.<\/p>\n

After a fruitless two-year job hunt, 27-year-old Zeynep Y\u0131ld\u0131r\u0131m, who graduated from an Istanbul university in 2009 with a degree in computer engineering, ended up working in her family\u2019s grocery store in the Aegean resort town of Bodrum. \u201cI feel horrible, terrible, of course,\u201d she said. \u201cDay by day, I am going to forget what I learned.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00dcmit Efendioglu, director of the International Labor Organization\u2019s Ankara office, identified a lack of adequate job-market preparation among Turkish institutes of higher education as a contributing factor in Turkey’s youth unemployment problem. Technical and creative-thinking skills remain in short supply, particularly among graduates of vocational schools, she said. “There is a disconnect with industry and the private sector,” Efendioglu said. “The labor supply does not match the demand\u201d for employees with highly specialized post-secondary degrees to work in scientific and technical sectors that require solid R&D or management skills.<\/p>\n

Structural problems in Turkey\u2019s labor market also play a role, commented economic consultant Emre Deliveli, a columnist for H\u00fcrriyet Daily News. The need to pay high severance packages \u2013 one month\u2019s salary for each year of work \u2013 to former workers means that turnover at Turkish companies is not robust. Those who do hire do not always recognize diplomas from vocational schools, from which 231,601 Turks graduated in 2010, nearly a 200-percent increase from a decade ago. The preference is to keep entry-level salaries low or, in many cases, off the books.<\/p>\n

“Young people are avoided or hired informally,” noted Dr. Seyfettin G\u00fcrsel, an economist at Istanbul\u2019s Bah\u00e7e\u015fehir University. Students who attended prestigious universities in Istanbul or Ankara sometimes are more likely to get jobs simply because Turkish companies like to show off highly accredited employees, added Deliveli.<\/p>\n

Reflecting on her own six-month job search, 25-year-old Rabia \u00d6zkutlu, a recent graduate of Istanbul\u2019s Beykent University with a degree in business management, said that her salary expectations — a monthly salary of 1,500 liras (about $836 as of the middle of November 2011) — was a stumbling block. Most potential employers only wanted to pay new employees a maximum of 1,200 liras (about $678) per month for full-time employment, she added. \u201cWe are used to the money our parents give us,\u201d she said. \u201cWe cannot live [as accustomed] on this salary. If [employers] don\u2019t agree with you, they say, \u2018Next!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The Ministry of Labor and Social Security declined to comment to EurasiaNet.org about its ideas for improving the employment situation for young job seekers.<\/p>\n

The ILO\u2019s Efendioglu said that, as an incentive to hire young people, the government has given companies a five-percentage-point reduction in the amount of money they must pay each year for retirement and healthcare benefits for employees aged between 18 and 29 years old. The Turkish Employment Agency also is currently carrying out a “provincial market needs assessment” to determine labor supply trends in different locations around the country, she added.<\/p>\n

So far, the issue of youth unemployment has not resonated politically. Among Turkey\u2019s mainstream opposition parties, interest tends to gravitate more toward issues with regular news coverage, such as constitutional reform. Young people, meanwhile, haven\u2019t been very politically active of late. For example, youth turnout was low at a scantily attended Occupy Istanbul event staged in early November.<\/p>\n

Given the circumstances, as well as the potential for an economic downturn, more and more young people seem to be revising their expectations. Twenty-five-year-old, multilingual Ozge Akkaya graduated this year with a history and English degree from Istanbul\u2019s prestigious Bo\u011fazi\u00e7i University, and accepts that she might not find work in her fields of choice. Instead, she is translating a book from Italian to Turkish. The job is unofficial, but \u201cI can\u2019t say I am unemployed,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

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Editor’s note:<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Justin Vela is a freelance reporter based in Istanbul.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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by Justin Vela Turkish university graduates struggling to find employment in their fields of study are often settling for menial part-time jobs until better times come around. The unemployment for Turks between the ages of 15 and 24 stands at 18.6 percent \u2013 nearly double the national average. (Photo: Justin Vela) To get a sense […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":46740,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[846],"tags":[1130],"class_list":["post-46739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-unemployment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}