Turkish employment performance tops European states
Number of employed in Turkey increased by 2.4 million persons in 2012-2016, official data show
Ankara
By Dilara Zengin and Erdal Celikel
ANKARA
Turkey became the top country in Europe in terms of providing employment between 2012 and 2016, according to data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) and Eurostat compiled by Anadolu Agency.
The number of employed people in Turkey increased to 27.2 million in 2016, up from 24.8 million in 2012, TurkStat revealed.
According to TurkStat's latest report released on Monday, the employment rate in Turkey rose by 1.1 million persons to 28.7 million persons in July, compared to same period of last year.
Two main drivers -- an increasing number of service jobs and manufacturing -- played an important role in Turkey's rising employment, economist Bora Tamer Yilmaz told Anadolu Agency.
Yilmaz noted that service jobs in various sectors such as construction, security, defense, finance and information technologies were providing opportunities.
Construction especially was creating many job opportunities in Turkey as there is an ongoing urbanization trend in the country, he added.
Turkey manages to run a stable manufacturing workforce in contrast to developed markets that are losing manufacturing jobs, Yilmaz said.
Turkey also benefits a demographic advantage with its higher proportion of young people compared to most European countries.
European Union countries provided jobs for 225.1 million persons in 2012 while it employed 232.1 million persons in 2016, Eurostat showed.
Turkey, the
The U.K. followed Turkey in the list by finding employment for an extra two million persons between 2012 and 2016, according to Eurostat. German employment increased by 1.6 million persons in the same period.
Erol Gurcan,
Gurcan underlined that the sustainability of the employment
"When we take into account the demographic structure of Turkey, we should emphasize the importance of sustainable economic growth performance at five percent and above for employment," he added.
Meanwhile, Romania, Greece, Finland and Southern Cyprus were EU countries where employment shrank the most in the last five years.
Number of employed persons (thousands) in 2012 | Number of employed persons (thousands) in 2016 | Change in five years | |
EU (28 countries) | 225,123 | 232,136 | 7,012 |
Euro area (19 countries) | 149,863 | 153,393 | 3,530 |
Turkey | 24,821 | 27,205 | 2,384 |
United Kingdom | 29,695 | 31,725 | 2,031 |
Germany | 42,061 | 43,638 | 1,577 |
Spain | 18,343 | 18,987 | 645 |
Poland | 15,475 | 16,061 | 586 |
Hungary | 39,76 | 4,429 | 454 |
France | 27,185 | 27,612 | 427 |
Sweden | 4,627 | 4,890 | 262 |
Ireland | 1,862 | 2,045 | 184 |
Czech Republic | 5,065 | 5,249 | 184 |
Austria | 4,205 | 4,337 | 132 |
Slovakia | 2,209 | 2,321 | 112 |
Denmark | 2,767 | 2,877 | 110 |
Belgium | 4,555 | 4,660 | 105 |
Lithuania | 1,275 | 1,361 | 86 |
Portugal | 4,581 | 4,651 | 69 |
Netherlands | 8,836 | 8,901 | 65 |
Italy | 24,765 | 24,809 | 45 |
Luxembourg | 379 | 418 | 39 |
Estonia | 594 | 625 | 31 |
Malta | 173 | 203 | 30 |
Bulgaria | 3,436 | 3,463 | 27 |
Croatia | 1,576 | 1,599 | 24 |
Slovenia | 937 | 960 | 23 |
Latvia | 869 | 886 | 18 |
Southern Cyprus | 393 | 380 | -13 |
Finland | 2,538 | 2,517 | -21 |
Greece | 4,105 | 4,072 | -34 |
Romania | 8,645 | 8,449 | -196 |
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