Unemployment fund converted into employers fund

Paid The Unemployment Insurance Fund, which employees see as security in the event of losing their job, continues to flow to employers. In the first 10 months of the year, employers were paid about twice the amount paid to the unemployed. According to the October 2023 Unemployment Insurance Fund Bulletin of the Turkish Employment Agency (İŞKUR), a total of 17 billion 723 million TL were paid to the unemployed in the first 10 months of the year, while payments incentives and support for employers reached 31 billion. 949 million TL in the same period. According to the data for the January-September 2023 period included in the monthly bulletin of İŞKUR, even half of those who applied for unemployment benefits could not access the benefit. While 1,226,253 people applied for unemployment benefits, only 551,116 were eligible to receive the benefit. In the 21 years that the fund has been in place, the amount paid to those left unemployed lagged approximately 61.4 billion lira behind payments made to employers in the last 5 years. While 10.3 million of the 18.8 million unemployed who applied since March 2002 were able to receive the benefit, the total payment made was 65.7 billion lire. Incentive payments made to entrepreneurs in the last five years amounted to 127 billion lira.

INCENTIVES FOR EMPLOYERS ARE INCREASING

Experts in working life point out the difficulty of the conditions for receiving unemployment benefits and demand that it be regulated. Incentive payments to employers are constantly increasing. While the minimum wage support provided to employers in 2022 was 100 lira, it was increased to 400 lira during the first six months of this year and to 500 lira during the period from July to December. This shows that incentive payments to be made to employers at the end of the year will double.

The fund’s total assets exceeded 148 billion lira.

According to the Bulletin of the Unemployment Insurance Fund of the Turkish Employment Agency (İşkur), the total assets of the fund were 148.4 billion lira as of October 2023. In the 10-month period covering the period January- October, 63.9 billion lira of revenue consisted of employee and employer bonuses, 21.3 billion lira from state contributions, 34.4 billion lira from interest income and 28.8 billion lira of other articles. While total revenue was 24.2 billion lira in October, total expenses were 10.9 billion lira.

‘Salaries are the first priority when changing jobs’

Fatih Cömert, CEO of Michael Page Turkey, evaluating employment, stated that the economic situation greatly affects employment. In his statement to Bloomberg HT, Cömert said: “There are the Netherlands and Germany, which are technically in recession. They have been in recession for two quarters and Turkey has also been affected by this.” Cömert stated that work-life balance is gaining importance: “In Europe, work-life balance is now above salary and the number one factor now is job change. In other words, workplaces that provide a work-life balance and are more flexible are preferred. In Turkey, salaries are still the first priority at 52 percent, but this is normal, we are in an inflationary environment. But in Europe, salaries have become secondary. “Now it is very difficult to retain talent, it is already difficult to find it and it is also difficult to retain it,” he said.