Employment Of Women In Turkiye

Women’s joining to the business life and being employed in every field, are important to
make sustainable development and improvement steady. This situation is tried to be supported by
many international policy. In the world from the 1970s up to now, although the ratio of women joining
the business world has been increasing, unfortunately it is just the opposite in Turkiye, being less all
the time. In the years 1970-1990 the percentage of women joining the business life decreased from 50%
to 30%. This ratio is now about 25%. This result has a lot of reasons. The rapid growth of population
and migration to the big cities has increased the ratio of unemployment. The majority of women
working in the villages, in agriculture have become unemployed in the cities. Further, the low education
level of women also affects women working. It is also observed that in many job sectors women are
working without any insurance. It is understood that there is no equity in the payment of the work
that women do. Educated women generally take place in the field of service, finance, insurance, estate,
wholesale or retail sale more than men. Low number of pre-school educational institutions is also
another reason for the less employment of women. The non existence of laws encouraging women
working and state’s having no positive discrimination for women are other reasons. In other words,
there are lots of problems about the employment of women in Turkiye and this has a quite negative
effect on the sustainable development of Turkiye.
But in the highlight of new developments in Turkiye the employment of women is also increasing and promising for future expectations.

 

Spains controversial solution to tackling unemployment!

According to the Fundación BBVA research institute, Spain now has the second-largest number of immigrants as a proportion of the population in the developed world, after the United States. But immigrants are now losing their jobs at more than twice the rate of Spaniards, raising fears that they will turn to crime.

To ward off social tensions, the Spanish government is now rethinking its immigration policy. In 2005, Zapatero angered other European leaders by giving a blanket amnesty to 800,000 illegal immigrants. By contrast, he now supports the European Union’s Return Directive for undocumented workers. His government also wants to restrict family immigration to parents and their children under 18. The law currently allows grandparents and in-laws to join their families.

In July 2008, the Spanish government launched a scheme to pay unemployed migrant workers to return to their country of origin. The plan offers documented migrants who have lost their jobs two lump sums, one before they leave Spain and the other once they have returned home. In exchange, immigrants are required to hand over their residence visas and work permits and agree not to return to Spain for at least three years. But so far there have been only around 4,000 takers, a tiny fraction of Spain’s immigrant population.

Spain now seems to be turning to more draconian measures. Police in major Spanish cities like Madrid and Barcelona have been given weekly quotas for arresting illegal immigrants. According to a leaked internal memo, police in Madrid have a weekly target of 35 arrests, with priority given to seizing Moroccans because they can be sent home quickly and cheaply.

The problem of runaway immigration was a major issue during Spain’s 2008 general election. Toward the end of the campaign, the race turned decisively in Zapatero’s favor after his main opponent called for a crackdown on illegal immigration. At the time, Zapatero said the proposals were inhumane and many Spanish voters seemed to agree. But Zapatero’s recent about-face suggests an emerging consensus that Spain has a real problem, and one it needs to address more effectively.

 

The UK suffered the largest job losses in Europe during the first quarter of 2009 .

It is thought that job losses for the first three months of the year totalled 219,290, with the UK suffering the most with 63,314 positions axed.

Other countries also said to be badly affected included Poland with 38,975 axed, Germany with17,461 job losses and France with 11,779 axed.

In total  there is said to have been 721 cases of restructuring in the EU between January and March 2009, involving the job losses and 90,000 job gains.

Financial services, car production and the retail trade were among the sectors worst hit.

It means job losses now outnumber job creation by almost three to one.

These findings reveal evidence that ‘the global recession is worsening and deepening’.

Growth forecasts continue to be revised downwards, while predictions regarding the inflection point marking a potential recovery of the global economy are increasingly being moved back to 2010, in some cases later.

Yet levels of job creation have grown in each of the last two quarters. Of the 89,625 announced job gains, bargain retailers and chain restaurants made up a significant proportion. Hotels and fast food markets also appear to be creating jobs.

 

Latest figures from UK Labour Market

The number of unemployed people, the unemployment rate and the claimant count have increased. The number of vacancies has fallen. Growth in average earnings, including and excluding bonuses, has fallen. The employment rate has fallen but the number of people in employment has increased slightly on the quarter. The number of inactive people of working age and the inactivity rate have fallen.

The unemployment rate was 6.5 per cent for the three months to January 2009. This is up 0.5 percentage points from the previous three months and up 1.3 percentage points on the year. The number of unemployed people was 2.03 million. This is up 165,000 from the previous three months and up 421,000 over the year.

The number of people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance benefit in February 2009 was 1.39 million. It is up 138,400 from the revised figure for January 2009 and up 595,600 on the year. This is the largest monthly increase in the claimant count since comparable records began in 1971.

In the three months to January 2009, 266,000 people became redundant in the three months prior to the Labour Force Survey interviews. This is up 86,000 on the previous three months and up 154,000 on the year. This is the highest figure since comparable records began in 1995.

The working age employment rate for the three months to January 2009 was 74.1 per cent, down 0.1 percentage point from the previous three months and down 0.7 percentage points on the year. The total employment level rose by 2,000 over the previous three months but fell by 75,000 over the year to reach 29.38 million. The number of hours worked per week fell by 2.3 million on the quarter to reach 935.7 million.

The number of people employed in the public sector was 5.78 million in December 2008, up 15,000 on the quarter and up 30,000 on the year. The number of people employed in the private sector was 23.60 million, down 13,000 on the quarter and down 105,000 on the year.

 

The recognition of informal gained knowledge

In the Project Learning for Young Adults (PLYA) programme, participants are young adults who failed to complete their education. They possess a mass of knowledge they have obtained in various ways and also through their participation at PLYA programme. Unfortunately, this knowledge is not registered and therefore not acknowledged. A significant part of drop-outs occur due to the fact that the youth do not have the possibility to enrol in programmes that would enable them to acquire relevant knowledge, necessary to compete in the labour market. They wonder about the significance of participating in an education programme, if the acquired education does not offer them much prospects of employment.

In PLYA programme young people participate, who failed to complete vocational or secondary education, and although they wish to test their competences in the labour market, they cannot get the chance due to a low response of employers. Recognition of informally acquired knowledge is rare, although nonformal knowledge represents a significant part of all acquired knowledge and experience.
As said, the causes of such situation are:

* Teaching in educational programme is creating factual knowledge;
* Bureaucracy is too slow;
* Inflexible school system and lack of connections between educational institutions and economy

Consequences:

* Unemployment – without education, it is hard to find a job, except for low-paid jobs that do not demand education, but they are getting very rare;
* Disadvantaged social situation;
* Highly educated workers are unemployed;
* Lack of experts in the field on natural sciences.

Possible solutions:

* Enable the young to acquire knowledge and skills, applicable to real-life situations.
* Better cooperation between education and economy;
* The state should help employers with tax deductions, so they would enable the youth to get work experience.

 

Labour market flexibility in Estonia: what more can be done?

In  mid-2008,  high  employment  and  low  unemployment  rates  characterised  the  Estonian  labour  market  in
comparison  with  the  average  of  the  EU15 countries. While  aggregate  outcomes  improved  during 2000-07,  large
inequalities  persisted  across  regions,  ethnic  groups,  and  workers  with  different  skill  levels.  As  Estonia  entered
recession in 2008, the unemployment rate almost doubled between the 2nd and the 4th quarter, and is expected to rise
further in 2009 and 2010.
More flexible labour markets will be a key adjustment mechanism during the recession as well as in the medium
term  if  Estonia  is  to  become  a  knowledge-based  economy.  Given  the  currency  board  arrangement  and  low
synchronisation  with  the  euro  area,  flexibility  is  also  needed  to  cushion  asymmetric  shocks.  In  December 2008,
parliament adopted the new Employment Contract Act, deregulating employment protection while increasing income
security of  the  unemployed. This paper discusses options  for  removing  the  remaining  barriers  that  impede worker
reallocation across jobs, sectors, and regions into more productive activities.

 

The gavity model, an assumption to explain migration

Before speaking about global labour market I’d like to make an assumption.

Nowadays the exchanges from south to north represent only less than 20% of the global exchanges.  The economic size of a country and the proximity with others countries affect bilateral trade, that is called the “gravity model”. The importance of trade decreases with distance and increases with the size of the countries involved.

The bilateral trade (T_ij)  is proportional to GDP (Y_i, Y_j) and inversely proportional to the distance(D_ij) between countries i and j.

T_ij = A (Y_i)^a (Y_j)^b / (D_ij) ^c  

Illustration: During the past ten years, the impact of south-east economies on the Global GDP increased. By the same time, international trades between the countries of this region increased in percentage of the Global GDP and these ccountries trade more among themselves.

With the gravity model, we can explain this situation. As the GDP of these countries is becoming ever higher, it’s normal that international trade is also increasing. An other explanation is the fact there are a lot of small ccountries in the south-east of Asia and they are also very close from each others.

Can we use also the gravity model to speak about migration ? (answer in the next post)

 

The global financial crisis – a high responsibility for the next generation

The global financial crisis has triggered a serious slowdown in world economic growth including recession in the largest industrialized countries. Enterprises have stopped hiring and many are laying off workers in considerable numbers.(c.f. Global employment trend report 2009)

The roots of this crisis can be found in the presumption and the acquisitiveness of managers. Although the welfare of many employees depended on their decisions, they mainly thought on their personal profit. A world which is leaded by persons without sense of responsibility is in danger. These people used their intelligence and their knowledge about the complicate structure of the financial market to enrich themselves of the expense of others.

Thus, our generation enters in a labour market which is tarnished. We should use this situation to build up a new standard. Although the behaviour of each individual is limited, a new thinking about moral, a new thinking about responsibility and a new thinking about doing could be the flicker of hope. Only the insight that the long-term financial success and stability requires a hierarchy in which the top features beside technical knowledge also a high sense of responsibility could recover the actual situation.

 

Global labour market – every second woman disadvantaged

Due to a survey of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) 1.2 billion women were employed in 2007. Only half of them had a job which offers a humane area. Humane area means a job which offers sufficient salary, social protection, having a voice and compliance with working standards.(c.f. Focus, “Global Labour Market”, 07.03.2008)

The number 1.2 billion presents an increase of 18% for employed women during the last 10 years. Nevertheless the number of unemployed women also increased from 70.2 million to 81.6 million. The worldwide unemployed rate for women is about 1% higher than for men. A further inequity can be found in the payment of wages. Thus, women earned in 2007 about 16% less than their male colleagues. (c.f. Focus, “Global Labour Market”, 07.03.2008)

Although the female image has changed during the last 30 years, there are still inequalities even in modern areas like Europe. I think it is time to abandon with this medieval thinking and build up a labour market which offers same conditions independent of gender. As one of the latest parts of this world Europe has the responsibility to go forward as a good example for the rest of the world.

 

Career Opportunities in EU Institutions for Graduates

The attractiveness of career opportunities in European Union institutions is growing constantly. People are motivated by the perspective of international employment, various functions offered, interesting salary conditions, stability of employment.

Employees of the European Union institutions have to go through an open competition. The European Communities Personnel Selection Office (EPSO) is the organ responsible for the competition and selection of highly qualifies staff for recruitment to all institutions, namely European Parliament, Council, European Commission, Court of Justice, Court of Auditors, Economic and Social Committee,     Committee of the Regions and European Ombudsman.

There are opportunities for graduates. They can start working at a basic level of administration, even when they don’t have relevant professional experience. For higher levels there are open competitions, for which a minimum of three years of experience is required.

The majority of graduate opportunities are in administration and management. The European Union administration covers all the responsibilities of a State. Therefore working for the European Union is highly challenging. A person applying for a position in one of the EU institutions should have a drive and initiative, should have some skills with managing resources. Such a person should be able to work with people from different countries and be able to express himself orally, on paper and in public. Communicational, negotiation and language skills are inevitable for a position in EU institutions.

If you are interested in applying for a job in EU institutions, look here to find out information about the process of applying and about the competition.

More jobs within the European Union can be found on European Job Mobility Portal Eures.