Retail Trade Records the Highest Rise in Employment Insured employment in the retail trade sector reached 1,000,074 in January 2012.

ANKARA – Overall insured waged employment reached 10,957,000 in January 2012. The highest rise in employment was recorded in the retail trade sector, with 1,000,074 total employment.

The sixth issue of the TEPAV Employment Monitoring Bulletin reports that total insured employment reached 16,569,000 with a 8.7 percent year-on-year increase. The number of insured workers therefore increased by 1,321,000. 75.5 percent of the employment gain was in the compulsory insured (4/a) category, while 3.7 percent was in the self-employed category (4/b), and 20.9 percent in the civil servants category (4/c).

Retail trade on top in waged employment

The total number of insured waged workers in all sectors reached 10,957,000 in January 2012. The sectors which had the highest employment were retail trade with 1,000,074, construction with 869,000 and the land and pipeline transport sector with 563,000.

Among manufacturing industries, the three sectors with the highest employment were clothing (422,000), textiles (394,000) and food products (379,000).

Employment by province

The research stressed that the three cities with highest employment in January 2012 were Istanbul, with 3,000,295 (30.1 percent of total employment), Ankara with 919,000 (8.4 percent), and Izmir with 728,000 (6.6 percent).

The numbers of insured workers were the lowest in Ardahan (4,474), Bayburt (4,694), Tunceli (5,108), Hakkari (8,301) and Kilis (8,968).

In terms of the year-on-year increase in the number of total insured and waged workers, the top five cities were as follows: Istanbul with  29.5 percent (294,000 new workers), Izmir with 7.7 percent (77,000 new workers), Ankara with 6.7 percent (64,000 new workers), Bursa with 5 percent (50,000 new workers) and Antalya with 4.5 percent (45,000 new workers).

The sharpest falls in the number of insured and waged workers was observed in Erzurum, with a drop of 2.7 percent (1,600 people). The city was followed by Hakkari, with 12.1 percent (1,100), Bitlis with 7.1 (971 people) and Ardahan with 10.1 percent (505 people).

Van, which has been losing employment since the earthquake, recorded a rise in employment for the first time in January 2012.