232,085 new jobs created in February after launch of employment campaign: Minister

ANKARA

Some 232,085 new jobs were created across Turkey in February after the government started a campaign to boost employment, a top official announced on March 3. 

“We have progressed step by step on the road to achieving our employment goals. We saw skyrocketing figures in February, when 232,085 new jobs were offered,” said Labor and Social Security Minister Mehmet Müezzinoğlu in a statement, as quoted by Reuters. 

The government’s employment encouragement campaign, which was announced early in February by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, aims to create 2 million new jobs. 

Many companies and sector organizations have later announced support to the campaign, vowing to create thousands of jobs. 

Some 100,000 of the estimated 1.5 million jobs are expected to be reserved for three groups, according to officials. 

“We will expect 50,000 of these jobs to be explicitly offered to women, while four-fifths of the other 50,000 jobs will be offered to disabled people and one-fifth will be offered to former prisoners,” Müezzinoğlu said in a meeting early February.

The package is expected to cost 12.3 billion Turkish Liras, most of which will be met from the Employment Fund. 

Social security premiums and other premiums are slated to be paid for each new employee for a one-year period by state authorities. 

With the support and incentives provided, the cost for an employer who employs an individual on minimum wage will decrease by 773 liras to 1,404 liras. 

Turkey’s unemployment rate rose to 12.1 percent in November 2016, marking the highest such rate since March 2010, official data showed on Feb. 15.