Services sector was largest employer in 2023
ANKARA
Some 18.2 million people worked in the services sector last year, accounting for 57.6 percent of all employment, data from the Turkish Statistics Institute (TÜİK) have shown.
Around 6.6 million of those employed in the services sector were women, according to the numbers of the statistics authority released on March 25.
Employment in the services sector increased slightly last year from 17.4 million in 2022.
Industry was the second largest employer with 6.7 million people, followed by agriculture with 4.7 million.
In the agriculture sector, total employment declined from the previous year’s 4.9 million.
In the construction sector, a total of 2 million people were employed in 2023, including 100,000 women, according to TÜİK data.
Employment in the construction sector increased by 151,000, while the increase in industry was only 48,000.
Last year, the unemployment rate was 9.4 percent across the country, falling from 10.4 percent in 2022. This also marked the lowest unemployment rate in 10 years.
In 2013, the jobless rate in Türkiye was 8.9 percent, rising to 9.9 percent in 2014. The unemployment rate remained above 10 percent in the following years, even climbing to 13.7 percent in 2019.
The number of unemployed people declined by 300,000 in 2023 compared to 2022 to 3.26 million, TÜİK said.
The unemployment rate among men and women was 7.7. percent and 12.6 percent, respectively.
There were around 65.4 million people in Türkiye aged above 15, and the country’s total labor force was 34.9 million last year, with 31.6 million people employed.
The labor force participation rate improved slightly from 53.1 percent in 2022 to 53.3 percent.
The employment rate also rose, climbing from 47.5 percent to 48.3 percent.
