group in 1965. The number of salaried employees has been rising rapidly in recent years due to the employment opportunities in the expanding industrial sector, the migration of many former seasonal workers to the cities, and the rural-urban shift of the population which has gained momentum. Only about 20 percent of the male labor force was employed as family workers at the time of the last census in 1965, and the percent in this category has been decreasing over the years. Their work includes irrigating, digging ditches, pruning trees, driving tractors, handling mechanical equipment and milling grain. They also handle all sales to the government buying agency.

Distribution of the Labor Force by Sector

Statistics concerning the distribution of the labor force among the various sectors of economic activity in the country are not very reliable because of continuous movement from rural to urban areas and the temporary character of much of this migration. Moreover, there may be considerable occupational overlapping. A merchant may also be a landowner who hires labor to work his land. A small farmer may be a mine worker for part of the year. A female farm laborer may produce cloth on order from a wholesaler.

Agriculture and related pursuits were the major source of employment in 1965, providing a living for approximately 72 percent of the working force (see table 5). About 9.8 million men and women were so engaged, cultivating the land as owners or tenants, or working as hired labor. Renters were few and decreasing in number. Sharecropping was likewise small and has been giving

Table 5. Distribution of the Turkish Labor Force, by Sector, 1965

Source: Adapted from International Labour Organisation, 1967 Yearbook of

International Labor Statistics, 1968.

way to seasonal hired labor. Having such a large percentage of the labor force in agriculture is one of the major problems the country faces in its quest for modernization.

Turkish planners estimate that as many as 1 million of these farm laborers are underemployed and could be removed with no loss to agricultural output. Since the framing of the First 5-Year Plan, efforts have been increasingly directed toward channeling this surplus agricultural labor into industry, thereby supplying the manpower resources for industrial expansion. By 1977 it is anticipated that the percentage of the active population employed in agriculture will have declined from its present level of 72 percent to 58 percent.

In 1965 there were more than 1.3 million workers in the industrial sector. This represented approximately 10 percent of the total labor force. Approximately 940,000 persons were employed in manufacturing. Of these, only about 40 percent were in establishments of 10 workers or more. The remainder were employed in smaller establishments or did piecework at home. Some were members of the still sizable group of migrant craftsmen working on their own. Mining and quarrying claimed 85,000 persons, while construction of roads, dams, factories, and housing projects provided employment for the remaining 353,000 persons of the industrial labor force in 1965. Although the government maintains a road construction unit, the bulk of construction work is carried out through contractors. Most labor is manual, but the use of heavy equipment is increasing. By 1977 Turkish planners hope to increase the industrial labor force from 10 percent to 16 percent.

Trade, banking, insurance, the professions, and service activities provided a living for more than 1.5 million citizens of widely varying social and economic status in 1965. Although the business community includes men of wealth with extensive connections abroad, the bulk of it is composed of small tradesmen, shopkeepers, clerks, peddlers, porters, and service employees of various types. Over 100,000 persons, originally from villages, were employed as errand runners in government offices and as doormen and janitors in many apartment houses. The great majority of persons in the business community are in enterprises consisting only of the owners, with one or two employees at the most.

The number of teachers, doctors, dentists, lawyers, engineers, and other professionally trained personnel has been growing but not at a sufficient rate to keep pace with the need. Men tend to dominate the professions, although more and more women are entering these fields. In 1965 there were approximately 35 men to every 10 women in professional, technical, and related work. The

civil service has also been increasing steadily in recent years with the expansion of government activities. However, its growth has shown a declining rate as wages have not kept pace with those of the private sector. Employment in the public sector represented approximately 15 percent of the total industrial and service employment.

Level of Skills and Training

In a 1962 study made by the State Planning Organization, the level of skills of the Turkish labor force was evaluated and the occupational shifts necessary by 1977 were determined (see table 6). From these projections, it appears that certain occupational categories must be realigned by 1977. Under the present distribution, about 45 percent of the labor force falls into the category of unskilled workers. By 1977 this group is expected to decline to about 30 percent of the total. The most acute shortages will be in the categories of foremen, skilled workers, and technical personnel. Large increases in these categories will be necessary if the development of the industrial sector is to achieve its desired pace. Thus, more than a five-fold increase in the number of foremen from the 1962 estimate of 50,000 will be required if 270,000 foremen are to be available in 1977. The number of skilled workers must increase nearly four-fold so as to provide the 2,570,000 persons desired in 1977. Technical personnel (including technicians, nurses aides, midwives, primary school teachers) must likewise quadruple their 1962 figure if they are to meet the 1977 demand for 1,720,000 such workers.

Since financial and time barriers prevent the training of these persons in schools, present efforts are being directed toward onthe-job training programs in industry. Many problems are being

Table 6. Distribution of the Turkish Labor Force, by Skills, 1962; Projections for 1977

Source: Adapted from Robinson, Richard D., High-Level Manpower in Eco

nomic Development—The Turkish Case, 1967.

encountered in the attempt to establish these. Most plants are small and lack adequate financial resources to carry out the training, and many employers fear that they will lose their investment if the worker leaves for another job. Vocational schools, formal education, and the military establishment are other potential institutions through which the desired shifts in manpower utilization can be achieved.

Approximately twice the number of higher-level administrators and professional personnel available in 1962 will be necessary in 1977. Furthermore, attention will have to be given to correcting the imbalances which are preventing efficient utilization of these more highly trained persons, for they tend to congregate in the larger cities, mostly in the western part of the country, and they lack enough trained assistants. For example, the ratio of doctors to nurses is about 6 to 1 and between engineers and technicians, approximately 3 to 5. Thus, doctors and engineers must perform the work of nurses and technicians in many cases, thereby taking the time away from the duties for which they are trained. Another problem of special concern is the growing number of medical doctors and scientific personnel who have been emigrating to the United States and Western Europe.

Productivity

As of 1968, no detailed statistics on output per worker have been published in Turkey. In general, however, labor productivity is rated low. The abundance of redundant labor, especially in the agricultural sector, has prevented the most efficient use of available resources. In the industrial and service sector, productivity per worker is held down by shortages of skilled and semiskilled manpower, structural imbalances, and the overall lack of an industrially disciplined work force. Also, production processes often must be delayed because of difficulties in securing materials and equipment which must be bought abroad. On the other hand, many foreign employers operating in the country have indicated that the Turkish worker adapts easily and becomes a good industrial worker after he is trained.

Unemployment

With the rapid rise in population and the growing tendency for people to migrate to the provincial capitals, unemployment has become an increasing problem for the government. This problem, in 1968, is expected to continue as the rural-urban shift becomes more pronounced and as more women seek employment. In a 1965 estimate the number unemployed was judged to be about 1.1 million, or approximately 8 percent of the total labor force. Much emphasis is being placed by the government planners on eliminating unemployment. They hope to provide jobs for an additional

6.8 million persons by 1977-all in the industrial, commercial, and service sectors. However, this will still leave about 5-percent unemployment. In an effort to curb the urban drift with its attendant employment problems, the government is encouraging the establishment of factories in rural areas by offering tax concessions and other incentives. Also, several regional development plans have been launched recently (see ch. 18, Character and Structure of the Economy).

Income

Statistics on income earned are available only for nonagricultural workers who are covered by social insurance. In 1965 their number was about 840,000, slightly less than 6 percent of the total labor force for that year. These employees received an average daily salary of LT 46.2 (LT 9 equals US$1-see Glossary). It is impossible to estimate the actual earnings of the remainder of the labor force. In general, their wages are quite low, and a large majority of workers in agriculture receive no cash remuneration at all. Many of the self-employed small farmers still rely on barter to obtain the commodities they cannot produce themselves. Cash cropping is increasing, however, reflecting the desire for a higher standard of living and improved living conditions. SPECIAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE LABOR FORCE The mobility of the labor force results from a number of economic and social factors. The dry-farming peasant of the Anatolian plateau has always been underemployed on his own fields, which can produce only one crop a year because of the long, hard winter. In the more temperate coastal areas, however, a variety of winter crops can be grown. Thus, the men of the plateau have traditionally come down from the villages in the autumn to follow the harvests in the coastal regions. Trends in 1968 indicate that the women have added their numbers to the seasonally hired labor force in the cotton fields, vineyards, fruit orchards, tea plantations, and tobacco fields in the vicinity of their villages. And the men are now beginning to travel much farther from home to search for employment. In increasing numbers, they are taking jobs in the mines, and in the new industries in the cities.

Traditionally, there have been many factors which have tended to draw the peasant back to his village. For one thing, he has been reluctant to give up the kinship-bolstered security of his ancestral village. Also, the jobs which were available in the cities and quasi-urban mining settlements often lacked prestige in the eyes of his countrymen. Wages appealed, but only as income for immediate purposes. Typically, the worker stayed on the job only until he had sufficient money to purchase land in the village, additional livestock, or a piece of farm machinery.

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