The active employment policies in European Union and Turkey

ABSTRACTMaster ThesisThe Active Employment Policies in European Union and TurkeyÖzce KARADUMANDokuz Eylul UniversityInstitute of Social SciencesDepartment of Labour Economics and Industrial RelationsUnemployment has become one of the most important problems in 21st centuryboth for the developed and underdeveloped countries. With the employment policies, itis intended to solve the problem of unemployment, to prevent poverty and to provideequal and fair distrubition of income. The concept of employment policy has beenimportant from past to present for the countries? development levels and theirprosperities. These policies are very important in terms of combating with incomeinsecurity and poverty. The employment policies divide into two as passive and activeemployment policies. Although the passive employment policies are the firstemployment policies which the states began to apply, these policies could not prevent theincreasing unemployment. For this reason many countries have tended to apply theactive employment policies for the solution of unemployment. Besides, the employmentpolicies which will provide reaching successful solutions are changing according to theeach countries? characteristics of employment and labour markets.In Turkey, it has been understood that, in the preventation of unemploymentwhich has been increasing and having a constant manner the passive employmentpolicies are not enough. In this context, in Turkey the active employment policiessupported by European Union have been prevelant since 2004.In the first part of this study, the concept of employment policy has beenexplained by pointing out its explanation and elements. In the second part, the situationof unemployment and labour markets has been evaluated and the policies assimilated tocombat with the unemployment have been investigated. In this context, the EuropeanEmployment strategy and the active employment policies have been investigated.In the third part, the general tendencies of the labour markets in Turkey and thestructure of unemployment and employment and the reasons of inadequate creation ofemployment have been evaluated. In this context the employment policies being appliedin Turkey have been investigated by dividing them in three parts as the 1960-1980, 1980-200 and after 2000 terms.Key Words: 1) Active Employment Policies, 2) Economic Growth,3) European Union, 4) European Employment Strategy5) The Employment Policies in Turkey