Production is stagnant, the wheels are not turning: Industrial employment is declining
The number of employees in the industrial sector, where production declined and turnover fell short of the inflation rate, also decreased in April. According to TÜİK‘s statistics on salaried employees, the total number of salaried employees in the industrial, construction, and trade-service sectors in the country was 15,658,462 in April. As of April 2025, the number of salaried employees in the industrial sector decreased by 1.3%.
Additionally, a 7.3% increase was recorded in construction and a 3.6% increase in the trade-services sector. In the struggling industrial sector, the number of salaried employees decreased by 66,883 over the course of a year. The textile sub-sector experienced a 4.3% annual decline in the number of employees, with 20,000 people leaving the sector over the course of a year.
Note: This article is translated from the original article titled “Üretim durgun, çarklar dönmüyor: Sanayi istihdamı eriyor” published in BirGün newspaper on June 17, 2025.
