Firms grappling with growing job vacancies

ANKARA

Companies in different industries are grappling with growing job vacancies, pointing to difficulties in finding suitable workers, especially skilled personnel, to fulfill positions.

There were more than 330,000 vacant jobs across Türkiye in companies that employ more than 1 worker in the first quarter of 2024, according to a survey by the Turkish Employment Agency (İŞKUR).

This figure was 170,440 for companies with up to 9 workers and 159,885 for firms that employ 10 or more workers.

The highest number of job vacancies was in the manufacturing sector at 110,468.

There were 90,000 unfulfilled jobs in the wholesale and retail trade sector in the January-March period, according to the report. In the construction sector, employees had difficulty in filling nearly 26,000 positions.

Collectively, manufacturing, wholesale and retail trade, and construction accounted for nearly 69 percent of job vacancies in the first quarter.

The job vacancy rate was highest in the real estate services sector at 3.1 percent, followed by manufacturing at 2.4 percent and administrative services at 2.1 percent.

Job losses occurred in their sector after the devastating earthquakes last year and due to weak demand, said Ramazan Kaya, the president of the Turkish Clothing Manufacturers’ Association (TGSD).

Business activity started to improve this year, but this time round, companies are changing their business models and looking for workers with better skills to produce products with higher value-added, Kaya added.

“We are looking for people with design skills, we need marketing people and employees to hire for R&D,” he said, explaining how employment requirements are changing in the industry.