TURKEY STATS

Turkey Stats

Turkey Stats

Introduction

Turkey's working age population is currently rising faster than the overall population, leading to what is known as a “demographic window of opportunity”. The idea is that the rise in the share of potentially productive individuals can serve as a fuel for faster growth (Tunali, 1997). But, in order to capitalize on the demographic window of opportunity, employment and labor force participation rates must also grow. Yet, the growth rate of employment in Turkey has been far from matching the increase in the working-age population, and the female labor force participation rate has been declining since the 1950s.

Purpose of Study

The purpose of study is to examine the Woman Participation in the Workforce for the economic growth.

Research Question

The decrease in the labor force participation rate is attributed in part to the withdrawal of the younger population from the labor force due to the increase in years of schooling. Internal migration to urban areas has also played a major role in the decline.

As the continuity between household and market production was broken, women who had previously been accounted as unpaid family workers in the rural areas have become housewives in urban areas, and are recorded as nonparticipants.

Significance of Study

The fact that urban-rural migration has had little impact on male participation rates suggests the need to explain the social division of labor, particularly within the framework of household, in order to shed light on the low levels of the female labor force participation rate. There is also need to pay more attention to the unique factors affecting female labor supply, and examine how macroeconomic conditions, institutional and social contexts, and the interdependency of labor market decisions within the household determine the differences between the productive roles of women and men.

On the other hand, since any recovery in the female labor force participation rate is likely to depend on improvements in the employment opportunities for potential labor force participants, analyzing the structure of female employment is crucial. Plant and industry-level analyzes, as well as studies using household data have shown that, in similarity with other developing countries, women in urban Turkey hold low-skill, low paying jobs, in low-capital intensity, small-scale plants, and tend to be concentrated in export-oriented sectors (Ça atay & Berik, 1990; Özler, 2000; Tunali & Ercan, 1998).

But, the difficulty for women involved in market work--especially in wage employment--is a more fundamental problem than unsatisfactory working conditions and benefits. According to our calculations based on 2001 HLFS by SIS, Turkish women are still mainly employed in the agricultural sector (61% vs. 26% for men), and their share in urban employment is around 18%. Among the employed urban women, 9.4% are self-employed, and 9.7% are unpaid family workers. While the urban female labor force participation rate is only around 17%, another unpleasant feature of female labor market involvement is the considerably higher urban unemployment rate faced by women compared to men (16.8% vs. 10.3%). As for the expectations for the near future, Tunali, Ercan, Ba levent, and ...