Gokçe Uysal and Duygu Güner
The data from the Household Labor Force Survey 2009, released by TurkStat, show that only 50.4 percent of young women and 57.1 percent of young men are enrolled in school. These numbers indicate an improvement over 2006, albeit very weak. The OECD average is 81.5 percent for this age group. Out of the 2 million 853 thousand young people who are not enrolled, 2 million 186 thousand are at most primary education graduates. Those who have not graduated from any educational program constitute a non-trivial fraction. A majority of the young women who are not enrolled are out of the labor market; whereas most of the young men are participating. However, those who are in the labor market face high unemployment rates and unfavorable working conditions. Among the 1 million 466 thousand young people who are not enrolled and who are not participating in the labor market, the majority of the young women are occupied with household chores and a large part of the young men state that they have been unable to find jobs or that they do not believe that they can find jobs given their skills. Given that these young people already feel left out of the economic and social life at age 15 to 19, it is crucial that they are integrated back in the educational system to provide them with the opportunity of leading productive adult lives.
doc. ResearchBrief091
pdf. ResearchBrief091