Manufacturing industry largest employer, shows data

ANKARA

Some 4.59 million paid employees were working in manufacturing as of January, making it the largest sector for employment, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute's (TÜİK) data.

However, employment in manufacturing declined by 0.9 percent compared to January last year.

Trade was the second largest in terms of paid employees at 3.39 million, rising 3.4 percent year-on-year, followed by construction at 1.8 million, up 6.4 percent annually.

The number of paid employees in the transportation, storage and accommodation and food services sectors were 1.25 million and 1.17 million, respectively.

The number of paid employees in transportation and storage rose by 4.5 percent year-on-year, while the accommodation and food sector added more than 79,000 jobs compared to January last year.

The total number of paid employees in the industry, construction and trade-services sectors increased by 2.2 percent in January 2025 from a year ago to reach 15.4 million.

In industry, paid employees declined by 1.4 percent annually to 4.93 million, TÜİK said.

In the information and communication sector, the number of paid employees rose by 1.7 percent from January 2024 to 294,137.

The number of paid employees in the industry, construction and trade-services sectors increased by 0.1 percent in January 2025 compared with the previous month.