Turkish PM vows to develop labor market to raise participation rate

ISTANBUL

Turkey’s labor force participation rate has been increased to 55 percent from 45 percent in the last 10 years, Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım has said, vowing to develop a robust labor market to meet the rising demand.

“Every year, Turkey provides employment for one million citizens. It means new factories and new business fields. However, the participation is 1.3 million. It means we need to establish more factories and create more business fields,” Yıldırım said on Oct. 2 at an International Labor Organization (ILO) event in Istanbul.

Yıldırım said every year the labor force participation rates have been increasing, but the job market has not met the rising demand.

He added that the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) facilitates stable political environment to fulfil the needs.

“We will do that with stability. Stability, a strong government and economy is the solution to everything,” he said.

He also urged that labor unions “should not mean ideological differences.”

“Trade unionism means to defend the rights of the workers you represent in any circumstance, not to undermine the realities of the country and never to tear up the golden triangle of an employee, employer and the workplace,” he said.