Publication: Activating Vulnerable People into Good Jobs in Turkey
Loading...
Published
2013-11
ISSN
Date
2015-01-07
Editor(s)
Abstract
This report presents the results of a highly simplified profiling exercise to demonstrate the initial steps of profiling and draw some initial conclusions on the types of clients that might be covered by activation policies in Turkey, and the extent of their socio-economic vulnerability as well as labor market employability. A key conclusion is that policy makers will need to decide whether to put the emphasis on the former or on the latter so that the dual objectives of protecting the vulnerable and helping them move out of transfer dependence are achieved. The initial profiling exercise shows that several large subgroups of the vulnerable comprise inactive females, often with limited or outdated skills. A priority might be to rethink the offer of public services involved in up-skilling the workforce, such as lifelong learning, in order to mobilize the largest identified segments. This Executive Summary reflects on four connected background papers. A conceptual framework first defines vulnerability and activation policies. A second background paper takes stock of the progress of activation policies in Turkey to date. A third background paper profiles the large and diverse group of vulnerable people in Turkey into units of higher or lower priority, while the final background paper examines how the capacity and skills of the vulnerable, especially those in the high priority units, can be built.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Finn, Dan; Grun, Rebekka; Herrera-Sosa, Katia; Immervoll, Herwig; Ridao-Cano, Cristobal; Uysal, Gokce; Yener, Ahmet Levent. 2013. Activating Vulnerable People into Good Jobs in Turkey. © http://hdl.handle.net/10986/21124 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Czech Republic : Improving Employment Chances of the Roma(Washington, DC, 2008-10-17)Roma in marginalized localities in the Czech Republic have not benefited from the recent improving employment opportunities in the Czech labor market. Employment among Roma is low and labor market participation limited, often driven by lacking labor market opportunities. The labor market status among the Roma is strongly driven by educational attainment and skills, and the vast majority of Roma in marginalized communities suffer from low attainment and lacking functional literacy and numeracy skills. As a result a majority rely on traditionally generous social welfare benefits to make ends meet. In an effort to reduce this welfare trap the Czech Government has introduced measures to reduce benefits and tighten conditions for long-term unemployed who are inactive. However, with very low demand for low or unskilled labor and widespread indebtedness of Roma which acts as a binding barrier to choosing formal employment, this tightening of beneficiaries' incentives alone will not suffice in enhancing their employment chances. It requires effective interventions by the employment services; yet in its current set-up the Czech labor office appears not well placed to provide effective support to long-term unemployed and disadvantaged job-seekers such as Roma. A new approach to improving job chances for socially excluded youth and adults is necessary, involving a new way of engagement through the labor office and contracted third sector service providers and with integrated activation services addressing multiple barriers to employment such as skills deficits, lack of child care, indebtedness and others. However, given the large skills gap of Roma and the receding demand for elementary skills in the labor market, the key long-term strategy to prevent Roma joblessness has to focus on improving educational outcomes for Roma.Publication More, and More Productive, Jobs for Nigeria(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015)This report provides an overview of jobs,workers, and employment opportunities in Nigeria, using recent household data. Jobs are critical for Nigeria’s present and future, as better jobs and income-earning opportunities form the basis for more diversified economic growth, poverty reduction, and greater prosperity. This report relies heavily on the wealth of information gathered through the General Household Survey conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics. The diagnostics included in this report are intended to describe the landscape of jobs in the country and provide broad analysis as an input into the development of a jobs strategy for Nigeria. The analysis conducted for this report has highlighted three areas that need attention: (i) data quality issues, as shown in the several rounds of data cleaning needed to provide consistent statistics; (ii) poor documentation and archiving, which prevented the use of several rounds of the household survey, especially to produce national-level statistics using population weights; and (iii) standardization, to permit comparisons of key variables over time and track the impact of policy changes and other events. As shown in this report, many Nigerians work, but generally in low-earning activities. Most work opportunities in the country are informal and do not come with a wage. This report presents an updated picture of jobs in Nigeria and identifies opportunities for improving the quality of jobs. This report has shown that Nigeria combines middle-income status and Africa’s largest economic power with high poverty levels, largely because the main sectors of economic growth are disconnected from the sectors that provide employment, notably subsistence activities in the agricultural and services sectors. Finally, the diagnostics included in this report show that both new and existing jobs, whether in agriculture or other sectors, will need to be more productive to help the population move out of low-earning employment and poverty.Publication Armenia - Labor Market Dynamics : Volume 1. Overview(Washington, DC, 2007-05)This study is intended to help Armenian policymakers better understand the main factors behind modest labor market outcomes and to identify policy options to create more and better jobs. The report is based on data from administrative statistics, labor force surveys, and household surveys. The objective of the study is to determine the main factors behind poor labor market outcomes in Armenia: high unemployment of long duration despite rapid economic growth. To do so, it will assess, first, the key characteristics of the demand for labor. These include (a) the impact of macroeconomic policies on job growth; (b) wage flexibility and unit labor costs; (c) cost-of-doing-business factors, including costs, risks, and barriers to competition faced by firms; and (d) employment promotion legislation and labor market institutions. Recommendations are made on policies that can promote an effective and sustainable increased demand for labor; second, the key characteristics of the supply of labor, including the impact of long-term demographic developments and labor migration, and the impact of social benefits on the reallocation of labor. Policy options are analyzed that can support the development of an efficient supply of labor to a modern high-wage market economy; and, third, the mechanisms by which employers and workers are brought into contact with each other, and recommend policies that support efficient and effective labor market institutions. The report consists of two volumes. Volume I provides an overview of the study and summarizes its conclusions. Volume II provides a more technical and detailed analysis of various aspects of labor market transition in Armenia.Publication The Challenge of Youth Employment in Sri Lanka(World Bank, 2010)Sri Lanka has been regarded as a model of a country with successful social policies, yet for decades it has faced major challenges in providing employment and satisfying other aspirations of youth. Although the labor force has become more educated, and this trend is particularly marked for youth, the main source of employment for both youth and adults remains the informal sector. Moreover, the importance of the informal sector as a source of employment has increased since the mid-1990s. On the positive side, unemployment declined in last decades, particularly for youth. The Sri Lankan government has continually acted on various fronts to address the youth unemployment problem. It has tried to improve and modernize Sri Lanka's general education system, which has long been criticized as too academic, and to increase the accessibility of training so as to promote the employability youth leaving school. Other actions included strengthening entrepreneurship programs and introducing career guidance and counseling and improving labor market information to help young people in their job searches and to guide human resource planning. In 2007, the government developed the National Action Plan for youth employment, built, for the first time, on a coherent youth employment policy framework and deriving an encompassing and consistent set of policy recommendations. The plan was based on in-depth analysis of Sri Lanka's labor market, provided via a series of background papers undertaken under the auspices of the Youth Employment Network (YEN). To provide the richness and comprehensiveness of this analysis in its totality, these papers, updated and revised, are collected in the present book. This book offers a wealth of valuable advice to the government and other stakeholders to achieve this goal. By exploiting the full potential of the youth, not only will their talent, aspirations, and energy be harnessed to advance economic growth, but also the existing inequities will be reduced and, hopefully in the longer run, eliminated.Publication Investing in Turkey's Next Generation : The School-to-Work Transition and Turkey's Development(Washington, DC, 2008-06)This report assesses the prospects for Turkey's youth by examining the 'school-to-work transition'. Turkey needs to invest in its young people to capture the potentially substantial dividend of today's large youth cohort. Because of the sheer number of young people, Turkey's working-age population will expand by over 800,000 every year during the next decade. This so-called 'productive population' will continue to grow until around 2020 when the demographic window starts to close. By that time, Turkey will have the population profile of an aging society. East Asia's economic miracle of the 1970s and 1980s demonstrated that a large youth cohort can propel an economy to very high growth rates. However, the experience in other regions, such as Latin America, has shown that this outcome is by no means guaranteed. Investments made now in today's children and youth will be critical in determining the extent to which Turkey benefits from this 'demographic dividend' While the potential benefits are great, so are the risks if today's large youth cohort does not find its place in tomorrow's labor market and society. The potential downside of this demographic profile is also significant. If Turkey's young people are not well prepared for the world of work and if the labor market does not generate more and better jobs for them, then this large youth cohort will be the source of social and economic pressures and tensions. Indeed, managing the transition into adulthood will be a very important factor in determining how well Turkey achieves the goals of stability, equity, and competitiveness that are at the heart of the Ninth Development Plan. In many respects, Turkey has taken important steps to prepare for this future. Today's young people are more educated and healthier than previous ones, which is a strong base to build on. Educational achievements have been notable, especially in basic education. Enrollments are up at all levels. Some important steps have been taken to modernize the labor market and to establish the foundations for employment institutions and policies suitable for an open, private-sector led economy.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Europe and Central Asia Economic Update, Spring 2025: Accelerating Growth through Entrepreneurship, Technology Adoption, and Innovation(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-04-23)Business dynamism and economic growth in Europe and Central Asia have weakened since the late 2000s, with productivity growth driven largely by resource reallocation between firms and sectors rather than innovation. To move up the value chain, countries need to facilitate technology adoption, stronger domestic competition, and firm-level innovation to build a more dynamic private sector. Governments should move beyond broad support for small- and medium-sized enterprises and focus on enabling the most productive firms to expand and compete globally. Strengthening competition policies, reducing the presence of state-owned enterprises, and ensuring fair market access are crucial. Limited availability of long-term financing and risk capital hinders firm growth and innovation. Economic disruptions are a shock in the short term, but they provide an opportunity for implementing enterprise and structural reforms, all of which are essential for creating better-paying jobs and helping countries in the region to achieve high-income status.Publication World Development Report 1987(New York: Oxford University Press, 1987)This report, consisting of two parts, is the tenth in the annual series assessing development issues. Part I reviews recent trends in the world economy and their implications for the future prospects of developing countries. It stresses that better economic performance is possible in both industrial and developing countries, provided the commitment to economic policy reforms is maintained and reinforced. In regard to the external debt issues, the report argues for strengthened cooperation among industrial countries in the sphere of macroeconomic policy to promote smooth adjustment to the imbalances caused by external payments (in developing countries). Part II reviews and evaluates the varied experience with government policies in support of industrialization. Emphasis is placed on policies which affect both the efficiency and sustainability of industrial transformation, especially in the sphere of foreign trade. The report finds that developing countries which followed policies that promoted the integration of their industrial sector into the international economy through trade have fared better than those which insulated themselves from international competition.Publication Poverty, Prosperity, and Planet Report 2024(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-10-15)The Poverty, Prosperity, and Planet Report 2024 is the latest edition of the series formerly known as Poverty and Shared Prosperity. The report emphasizes that reducing poverty and increasing shared prosperity must be achieved in ways that do not come at unacceptably high costs to the environment. The current “polycrisis”—where the multiple crises of slow economic growth, increased fragility, climate risks, and heightened uncertainty have come together at the same time—makes national development strategies and international cooperation difficult. Offering the first post-Coronavirus (COVID)-19 pandemic assessment of global progress on this interlinked agenda, the report finds that global poverty reduction has resumed but at a pace slower than before the COVID-19 crisis. Nearly 700 million people worldwide live in extreme poverty with less than US$2.15 per person per day. Progress has essentially plateaued amid lower economic growth and the impacts of COVID-19 and other crises. Today, extreme poverty is concentrated mostly in Sub-Saharan Africa and fragile settings. At a higher standard more typical of upper-middle-income countries—US$6.85 per person per day—almost one-half of the world is living in poverty. The report also provides evidence that the number of countries that have high levels of income inequality has declined considerably during the past two decades, but the pace of improvements in shared prosperity has slowed, and that inequality remains high in Latin America and the Caribbean and Sub-Saharan Africa. Worldwide, people’s incomes today would need to increase fivefold on average to reach a minimum prosperity threshold of US$25 per person per day. Where there has been progress in poverty reduction and shared prosperity, there is evidence of an increasing ability of countries to manage natural hazards, but climate risks are significantly higher in the poorest settings. Nearly one in five people globally is at risk of experiencing welfare losses due to an extreme weather event from which they will struggle to recover. The interconnected issues of climate change and poverty call for a united and inclusive effort from the global community. Development cooperation stakeholders—from governments, nongovernmental organizations, and the private sector to communities and citizens acting locally in every corner of the globe—hold pivotal roles in promoting fair and sustainable transitions. By emphasizing strategies that yield multiple benefits and diligently monitoring and addressing trade-offs, we can strive toward a future that is prosperous, equitable, and resilient.Publication Digital Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13)All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.Publication World Development Report 2017(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2017-01-30)Why are carefully designed, sensible policies too often not adopted or implemented? When they are, why do they often fail to generate development outcomes such as security, growth, and equity? And why do some bad policies endure? This book addresses these fundamental questions, which are at the heart of development. Policy making and policy implementation do not occur in a vacuum. Rather, they take place in complex political and social settings, in which individuals and groups with unequal power interact within changing rules as they pursue conflicting interests. The process of these interactions is what this Report calls governance, and the space in which these interactions take place, the policy arena. The capacity of actors to commit and their willingness to cooperate and coordinate to achieve socially desirable goals are what matter for effectiveness. However, who bargains, who is excluded, and what barriers block entry to the policy arena determine the selection and implementation of policies and, consequently, their impact on development outcomes. Exclusion, capture, and clientelism are manifestations of power asymmetries that lead to failures to achieve security, growth, and equity. The distribution of power in society is partly determined by history. Yet, there is room for positive change. This Report reveals that governance can mitigate, even overcome, power asymmetries to bring about more effective policy interventions that achieve sustainable improvements in security, growth, and equity. This happens by shifting the incentives of those with power, reshaping their preferences in favor of good outcomes, and taking into account the interests of previously excluded participants. These changes can come about through bargains among elites and greater citizen engagement, as well as by international actors supporting rules that strengthen coalitions for reform.