Employment in accommodation, food sector reaches all-time high

ANKARA

The number of people employed by the accommodation and food services sector reached an all-time high of more than 1.3 million in May.

Employment in the accommodation and food sector increased by 8.7 percent or 105,106 people in May 2024 compared with the same month of last year, according to data from the Turkish Statistics Institute (TÜİK).

Companies operating in this industry employed a little more than 1 million people as of the end of 2023. Employment in the industry declined slightly in January 2024 but started to pick up in the following months, reaching 1.1 million in March and 1.22 million in April.

The increase in employment in the industry is related to the developments in the tourism sector, İsmet Demirkol, founder of the consulting firm Pariterium told state-run Anadolu Agency.

Demirkol predicts that employment in the accommodation and food sector is likely to continue to increase in the coming months.

There was a total of 15.67 million paid employees in Türkiye’s industry, construction, trade and services sectors as of May, according to TÜİK data.

The number of paid employees increased by 4.3 percent or 639,000 people from May 2023.

In industry, employment inched up 0.6 percent year-on-year to around 5.1 million, while the number of paid employees in the construction sector soared 11.1 percent to 1.82 million.

Trade and services added 426,000 jobs or 5.1 percent with the number of paid employees reaching 8.77 million.

The total number of paid employees in Türkiye rose by 0.7 percent in May from the previous month, according to TÜİK data.