Turkey’s retail sector leads in employment
ANKARA – Anatolia News Agency
Textile employees works at a jean manufacturing factory in central Istanbul.
The highest levels of employment in Turkey are in the retail, building construction, and transportation sectors, according to a report released by the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey (TEPAV) for January 2012.The retail sector employed 1.7 million people as of January, followed by the building construction sector employing 869,000 and the transportation sector, which for purposes of the report included the pipeline industry, 563,000. The total number of registered employees in January 2012 rose 8.7 percent compared to the same period last year, reaching 16.5 million, which is tantamount to the creation of 1.3 million new jobs.
In a break-down of employment in the retail sector, 422,000 people were found to be employed in the clothing sector, 394,000 in the textile sector, and 379,000 in food production.
The regions with the highest employment were Istanbul at 30 percent, Ankara at 8.4 percent and İzmir at 6.6 percent. The areas found to have the lowest employment were Ardahan, Bayburt, Tunceli, Hakkari and Kilis, all of which are regions in eastern Turkey.
