Turkey’s employment ranks at the bottom employment

ISTANBUL

The worst employment numbers are in Turkey among all OECD countries, according to a new survey of the organization.

Employment levels are lowest in Turkey (48 percent), Greece (56 percent) and Hungary (56 percent) while are highest in Iceland (79 percent), Switzerland (79 percent) and Norway (75 percent). Nearly 66 percent of the working-age population aged 15 to 64 has a paid job across the OECD.

Turkey is by far the country with the highest proportion of people working very long hours, with more than 46 percent, followed by Mexico with nearly 29 percent and Israel with nearly a fifth of employees, according to the OECD. Overall, men spend more hours in paid work and the percentage of male employees working very long hours across OECD countries is 12 percent, compared with less than 5 percent for women.

Gender inequality highest in Turkey

Despite a steady increase in female employment rates over the past 15 years, women are still less likely than men to have a job. On average across OECD countries, 60 percent of women had jobs, compared with 72 percent of men. The gender difference is particularly high in Turkey and Mexico, and relatively small in Canada, Estonia and the Nordic countries.

Another essential factor of employment quality is job security. Employees working on temporary contracts are more vulnerable than workers with an open-ended contract, the OECD report said. In Turkey, close to 26 percent of total employees have a contract of six months or less; the highest score across the OECD.