Havva Gümüşkaya
Warning bells are ringing loudly in the real sectors that form the backbone of the economy. Rising input costs and weakening domestic demand have gripped many sectors. The number of employees in textiles, clothing and leather products manufacturing, once the country’s export locomotive and among the leading labour-intensive sectors, is falling rapidly.
According to TÜİK the number of waged employees was 15,991,589 in the same month of the previous year and rose to 16,169,476 in September 2025. The increase in waged employees stemmed from a 7.4 percent rise in construction, which gained momentum due to the earthquake effect, and a 2.5 percent rise in the trade-services sector. However looking at the sub-details the number of waged employees in industry fell annually by 3.7 percent in September.
TEXTILE SECTOR ABANDONED
The number of waged employees in industry fell by 187,518 in the past year. The sharpest decline occurred in manufacturing. The number of employees in manufacturing fell by 186,971 compared with the same period last year and dropped to 4,713,299. The loss in manufacturing employment is largely due to textiles. The long-running production and employment crisis in textiles and clothing, one of the country’s oldest sectors, continues to grow.
LOSS IN DURABLE CONSUMER GOODS NEAR 10,000
In the sector where a significant part of production has shifted to countries with lower labour costs the drop in the number of employees continues. In textiles, clothing and leather products manufacturing alone the number of waged employees fell by 132,388 in the past year. In the sector where uninterrupted job losses have continued for three years the number of waged employees, which was 1,330,000 in 2022, has fallen to the threshold of 1,019,000.
Meanwhile the contraction in the durable consumer goods sector has also led to a fall in the number of waged employees. In the sector where major industrial companies have decided to lay off workers the number of waged employees fell by 9,450 in the past year. In the sector where the number of waged employees fell to 322,000 a 2.8 percent loss in employment was recorded in the past year.
Note: This article is translated from the original article titled Lokomotif devrildi, published in BirGün newspaper on November 15, 2025.
