Over the last decade, the number of public employees has increased by 30 percent. New employment in the public sector in the first half of 2012 was about 250,000.

Let’s admit that this was a first: in 2012, the number of people seeking to become public employee reached almost a million. 987,000 people applied for the Public Personnel Selection Examination (KPSS). Out of these, 931,000 took the exam. In 2009, I remember seeing a photo of Chinese youth standing in rows like an army of ants in the The Guardian and I was greatly impressed. That year, one million people took the public personnel election examination in China. Back then, this was not the case in Turkey. The number of applicants for the KPSS in 2008 was around 500,000. Meanwhile, Turkey has taken the growth record from China or something. But today, a million people have taken the KPSS for appointments to public sector posts. So, either the growth figures or the number of KPSS applicants is wrong.

It's just like the Hodja Nasreddin joke: He brings home two kilograms of meat after a long time of not having any. It has been so long that his wife, cooking the meat and tasting the dish while cooking it, finishes all of it. Hodja comes home in the evening, looking forward to eating the meat. His wife lies, saying, “the swine cat of ours ate it up before I could catch it.” Hodja puts the cat on the scale and sees that it weighs two kilograms. He turns to his wife and says, “if this is the cat, where is the meat? If this is the meat, where is the cat?”

Let me start with some figures. In Turkey, university graduates between the ages 22 and 29 can become public employees. The KPSS for which almost a million people applied was specifically for university graduates. So, we have to compare this figure with the overall number of university graduates. In Turkey, there are 1,750,000 university or college graduates between 22 and 29. This means that in 2012, 53 percent of the university graduates in this age group applied for the exam. How about that? How about all the entrepreneurship incentives and campaigns?

The story doesn’t end here. Let me continue: we can also look at the number of university or college graduates who are not in the labor force to compare this figure with the number of KPSS applicants. The figures for 2011 say that the number of graduates that are not in the labor force is around one million. Then, almost all of the university and college graduates who don 't (actually are not able to) work applied for the KPSS examination in 2012. You can choose whichever scenario you like; but in any case, there is a rising demand for public sector posts in Turkey. And this is not good.

Why is this bad? Since the 1980s, Turkey has been trying to create a private sector-driven economy, but university graduates are increasingly looking to work in the public sector. In 2012, almost one million applied and 931,000 completed the exam. In 2010, 440,000 people completed the exam. So, from 2010 to 2012, this indicates an increase by 115 percent. I am of the opinion that the size of the population willing to become government employees has been increasing since the 2008 crisis, which allegedly did not hit Turkey. And this is what the figures say, indeed.

Here is what is bad about this: the trend that started with the 2008 crisis has been continuing and strengthening. One million people applied for the KPSS. The Turkish youth are going to university with the aim of becoming public employees. I have started to think that the share of students who choose to study law or medicine is increasing with the motivation to find a secure job.

Why are the educated young people seeking public sector posts? Because the public sector is opening new posts at an increasing pace. Over the last decade, the number of public employees increased by 30 percent. New employment in the public sector in the first half of 2012 was about 250,000. This is what the latest issue of the TEPAV Employment Monitoring Bulletin says.

The demand has created its own supply and overthrown the fiscal discipline. The election in 2015 will shape everything in Turkey.

This commentary was published in Radikal daily on 04.09.2012