Growing labor shortage affecting factories, businesses

ISTANBUL

The shortage of skilled and unskilled labor has become a headache for Turkish small and medium-sized industrial enterprises as well as retailers.

“Nobody wants to be a blue-collar worker anymore,” scoffed Adlıhan Dere from the Confederation of Turkish Tradesmen and Craftsmen (TESK), voicing concern that some professions may even soon disappear.

Labor shortage, finding skilled and unskilled workers has become a huge problem for businesses, according to Dere.

Barber shops, furniture makers and machinists are struggling to recruit apprentices,” he said.

“In the past, such professions were passed from father to son. This is not the case anymore. Business owners cannot pursue their children to take over the family business.”

“The new generation has other dreams, thinking 'I can become a YouTuber, why bother working at my father’s shop… who will repair cars, who will cut hair, if everybody becomes a social media celebrity,'” he said.

Skilled workers are in high demand, but they are short in supply, according to Dere.

“A skilled worker is now making very good money because there are very few of them out in the labor market… Business owners not only offer good salaries but some of them even pay for their rents,” he said.

The confederation is developing projects and will continue to do so to fill the labor shortage gap, Dere added.

Not only small retailers and businesses but also manufacturers face similar problems.

Companies based in the organized industrial zones (OSB), which home small and medium-sized enterprises, are postponing or even scrapping their investment plans altogether since they cannot find skilled personnel to hire.

“This is not a problem that affects companies in a few cities or a few regions, it is a problem companies face across the country,” said Memiş Kütükçü, president of OSBÜK, an umbrella organization for OSBs.

The skilled labor shortage is hitting companies operating from OSBs particularly hard, according to Kütükçü.

“We need to resolve this question immediately through vocational education and training. Companies are forced to postpone or put investment plans on shelve because they cannot find skilled workers to hire,” he said.

Kütükçü proposed that foreigners living in Türkiye should be allowed to work to address the labor shortage problem.

Finding skilled workers is now the most pressing issue for companies, said Mustafa Keskin, board chair of the İkitelli OSB in Istanbul.

Firms in the İkitelli OSB especially need technicians who can operate and fix electrical machinery which have become widely used across industries, Keskin said.

More than 400 OSBs with nearly 2.7 million workers account for 45 percent of industrial production in Türkiye.