SMEs are largest employers, shows survey

ANKARA

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) accounted for nearly 71 percent of employment in Türkiye in 2022, according to the numbers from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK).

Their share in total turnover was 42.5 percent, while accounting for 36.2 percent of production value.

SMEs constituted 99.7 percent of all enterprises.

Businesses with less than 250 employees and annual sales revenues of less than 250 million Turkish Liras are defined as SMEs.

Some 36 percent of SMEs were operating in the wholesale and retail trade, followed by transport and storage at 15.2 percent and manufacturing at 12.2 percent.

SMEs in the wholesale and retail trade were the largest employers, accounting for 27 percent of total SMEs employment, while their share in total SMEs turnover was 53.4 percent.

While the average cost per employee for SMEs was 8,000 Turkish Liras in 2009, it increased to 69,000 liras in 2022, TÜİK said.

Among the SME groups, the highest personnel costs per employee for 2009 and 2022 were in medium-sized enterprises with 15,000 liras and 120,000 liras, respectively. This was 11,000 liras and 87,000 liras, respectively, for the small-sized enterprises.

SMEs accounted for 31.6 percent of exports and 15.4 percent of imports in 2022.

The EU was the largest export market for SMEs. Some 49.3 percent of their exports went to the bloc, while Asian countries’ share was 32.7 percent. Their exports to the EU amounted to $38.9 billion in 2022.