A total of 15,641 people applied for a job in the Black Sea province of Rize when only 60 positions were available, in a development that demonstrates how desperate some Turks to find a job, a local news website in Rize has reported.
According to the olay53 news website, the Youth and Sports Ministry will employ 3,243 people across Turkey who will work at the ministry’s provincial directorates. Sixty of these workers will be employed in Rize, the hometown of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
A total of 15,641 people in Rize applied to the office of the Turkish Employment Agency (İŞKUR), 12,571 of whom were seeking janitorial jobs although only 10 such workers would be employed.
The names of the lucky job applicants will be determined by a drawing at a notary’s office on Feb. 27.
According to an announcement from the Turkish Statistics Institute (TurkStat) on Friday, Turkey’s unemployment rate rose to 12.3 percent in November 2018.
The number of unemployed persons aged 15 and over increased by 706,000 to 3.98 million in November year on year. The unemployment rate was 12.3 percent with a 2 percentage point increase, TurkStat said.
Since November 2013, the highest unemployment rate was 13 percent in January 2017, while the lowest was in May 2014 with 8.8 percent.