Havva Gümüşkaya
Citizens are being driven into poverty by economic policies that have created an army of millions of unemployed. In the first six months of the year, the number of registered unemployed at the Employment Agency (İŞKUR) reached 2 million 185 thousand. Although the number of registered unemployed persons has decreased, citizens of all age groups, young and old, are waiting in line for jobs. As of June, 1 million 108 thousand of the unemployed registered with İŞKUR were women, and 1 million 77 thousand were men.
Approximately 10% of registered unemployed individuals, or 209,000 people, have been searching for work for over a year.
Forty-one % of registered unemployed individuals are young people aged 15-29. Of the 905,000 registered unemployed individuals in this age group, 79,000 have been searching for work for over a year.
The increase in the elderly population who are forced to continue working because they cannot make ends meet with their pension payments is also reflected in İŞKUR data. The number of individuals aged 60 and over who are looking for work through İŞKUR reached 28,000. This figure was 27,000 in the same period of 2024.
Additionally, while 6,834 people aged 60 and over were placed in jobs through the agency between January and June 2024, this year the number rose to 9,442 during the same period.
LONG-TERM UNEMPLOYED
The job search periods for women, who are at a disadvantage compared to men in the labour market, are also getting longer. While 8% of unemployed men have been looking for work for more than a year, this rate stands at 11% for unemployed women. Women accounted for 58 out of every 100 long-term unemployed persons.
ALLOWANCES FAR AWAY
Due to the tightening of conditions for receiving unemployment allowances and the misuse of unemployment insurance funds, the vast majority of unemployed persons were unable to access unemployment allowances. As of January-May, 717,149 people applied for unemployment allowance. Only 48% of these people were eligible for unemployment allowance. Of the 4,847 people aged 60 and over who applied for allowance, 2,792 were able to benefit from unemployment allowance.
Note: This article is translated from the original article titled Genç, kadın, emekli iş kuyruklarında, published in BirGün newspaper on July 16, 2025.