Employment Situation in the Earthquake Zone

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Employment Situation in the Earthquake Zone

Factories in the earthquake zone cannot find workers to employ
After the earthquakes in Kahramanmaraş, many factories, especially the textile industry, started looking for workers through posters and social media ads.

Many industrial facilities were damaged in Kahramanmaraş, the epicenter of the two major earthquakes that occurred on February 6, 2023. While some factories were replaced with new ones, the facilities that survived the earthquakes with minimal damage started production after the renovations, but many facilities had to reduce their production capacity because there were no workers. Due to the labor shortage in the city, İŞKUR currently has 468 job postings across Kahramanmaraş. However, many factories are trying to find workers through posters they hang on the walls of factories, roadsides, and advertisements on social media, in addition to İŞKUR.

Kahramanmaraş Chamber of Commerce and Industry Deputy Chairman Mahmut Arıkan said that Kahramanmaraş is one of the important industrial cities of Turkey with the production of textiles, steel kitchenware and gold jewelry and that there is a serious labor shortage in the city and added: "Currently, the entire industrial sector is struggling to find personnel to employ." is in trouble. At the same time, the tradesmen in our small industrial site have the same problem. Before the earthquake, our population was 1 million 170 thousand. Many Kahramanmaraş people migrated out of the city due to the lack of places to stay due to the earthquake and the educational status of their children. These have an effect. While the number of workers registered with SSI in Kahramanmaraş in December 2022 was 172 thousand 436, this figure decreased to 155 thousand 929 in December 2023. But in the meantime, the early retirement law EYT was passed. Because of EYT, the qualified manpower we trained retired at a very early age. EYT members, who previously wanted to work in factories, now many of them do not want to work. In the construction sector, of course, new buildings are being built to replace demolished buildings in Kahramanmaraş. "They prefer the construction industry because the wages are higher than factories, and this also has an impact," he said.

'WE NEED TO APPLY THE GERMANY MODEL'
Stating that the production capacities of the factories started to decrease due to the industrialists' inability to find workers to employ, Arıkan said:

“Currently, we see that capacity utilization rates in many factories have fallen between 25 and 30 percent. The reason for this is not being able to find staff. We need to discuss our education system. Because this problem is becoming more chronic every day. So, while we were waiting for improvement, on the contrary, our problem of not being able to find personnel started to grow even more. Now we have young people who are 4-year university graduates. I think the number of foundation and state universities in Turkey is currently over 240. Now, we need to turn three quarters of these 4-year schools into 2-year vocational schools, just like in Germany. Only in this way can we provide a qualified workforce. So we need to apply the German model. Because qualified workforce, 2-year school graduates today earn higher wages than 4-year graduates, and these young people are more inclined to work in production. But unfortunately, 4-year graduates do not want to work in production. Our state raised these young people. But unfortunately, most of our young people spend their time in cafes, they do not like the job, everyone expects a desk job. In other words, we need qualified workforce to work in production and factories. However, if we are to increase Turkey's development, growth and exports, if we are to pursue greater goals, if we are to be among the 10 developed countries of the world, we must definitely solve this problem. Otherwise, industrialists, no one would invest right now. Because unfortunately there is no staff to work with.”

'TEXTILE INDUSTRY WILL LEAVE TURKEY'
Arıkan also stated that as industrialists, if the factories do not produce, they will not contribute anything to the country and said, “As industrialists, we have invested so much. Because if they work, these factories, these machines have value. What will happen if we don't make this production, the machine you don't employ, the people you don't employ? This sector will leave Turkey. Currently the textile industry is facing this problem. Not only this. It is a general problem, a general problem, for our industrialist friends in many sectors, and for all industrialists operating in labor-intensive sectors in different sectors. We currently transport workers up to 40 kilometers. We provided services to the villages. In fact, if we can still find staff from the villages, we are willing to provide services. But unfortunately, we have difficulties in recruiting staff there too. Currently, the industrialists are of course working overtime, we are barely producing, and we are shutting down some machines. "Of course, we cannot work at full capacity due to lack of personnel," he said.

'NEW INVESTMENTS ARE A QUESTION MARK BECAUSE WE CANNOT FIND WORKERS'
Industrialist İsmail Kurtul also stated that the labor shortage is a problem that grows every day. Stating that although they provide services to rural areas, they have difficulty finding workers to work in their factories, Kurtul said:

“Many industrial facilities in Kahramanmaraş have been strengthened and reconstructed after the earthquake. However, after this strengthening and reconstruction, we are having difficulty finding employees. Although we provide services to rural neighborhoods approximately 35-40 kilometers away, we have great difficulties in finding qualified and unqualified workers, and therefore some of our facilities do not operate at full capacity. Frankly, it is a question mark for us regarding our new investments. Because while we cannot find employees in existing businesses, new investments make us think. There are currently people working for daily wages such as construction. When we try to give the same conditions, we become unable to compete in the international market. That's why we still have difficulty finding employees. "The solution is to create conditions that will both increase purchasing power with more competitive exchange rates and not hinder our competition."

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