Social policies for youth unemployment in European Union and Turkey: 2000 and later years

The youth unemployment problem, appears to be a common problem in both developed and developing countries. In EU Countries and Turkey unemployment is increasing, especially since 1990s and youth unemployment rate is increasing at a rate much faster than the general unemployment rate. In the 1980s, rapidly changing technology, knowledge economy and increased international competition due to globalization have affected the labor market as well as other areas which increased the requirement for educated, skilled, young workforce. This process has increased the importance of social policies in the fight against unemployment and young people have been identified and proposed as one of the main target group to implement these social policies. In the first chapter of the study youth unemployment is discussed; the reasons and effects on young people are explained. In the second chapter situation of youth unemployment in the EU countries and Turkey has been examined. In the third section, social policy related to young people in our country and EU countries are evaluated and some specific examples are used to clarify. The main objective of this research is to compare the EU and Turkey; to evaluate the pros and cons of applied and proposed policies and also to clearly state the situation. Youth unemployment for various reasons linked to the structure of the labor market and has its own dynamics. To improve the current youth unemployment situation several policies are developed in EU and Turkey. With this study efficiency of these policies are evaluated and some solutions are proposed.