Crisis-hit auto industry sees record increase in unemployment
Posted by meb at March 10th, 2009
The unemployment rate in Bursa, Turkey’s car manufacturing hub, has reached a new high, with 13,773 losing their jobs in just the first two months of 2009.
Several major car manufacturers and auto parts producers, such as Tofaş, Oyak-Renault and Bosch, operate in Bursa and export around 80 percent of their goods. The Confederation of Turkish Labor Unions’ (Türk-İş) representative in Bursa, Mehmet Kanca, said Tuesday that the increasing unemployment in the city is “worrisome,” adding: “In the final quarter of 2008, the crisis really started to sink its teeth into Turkish markets, in particular. Around 56,700 employees lost their jobs in Bursa, and only 7,815 new employees were hired that whole year.”
Kanca noted that in January and February an average of 265 people lost their jobs daily. “We are worried about the current developments. Both employers and the government should take it seriously; this is not only a financial issue but also a social problem,” he said, citing a recent increase in crime, which he attributed to people’s general disappointment with the economy.
Underscoring that both employers and the government should take responsibility, Kanca said he fears that the number of employees laid off in Bursa will increase in the coming months if the appropriate people don’t react in time. “The employers should take measures, seeking opportunities to enter new export markets in order to retain their workers, and the government should take the necessary steps to slow unemployment as soon as possible,” he said.
He pointed out that the majority of dismissed workers were experienced and qualified and that their termination was a serious loss for both the individuals who had invested their time in developing specialized skills and the companies which had trained them. “It takes a long time and a lot of money to train new personnel. The factories should change the present conditions before it is too late. In the future, when the markets recover and things get better, the factories will have to recruit new people,” he stated.
The car factories in Bursa depend mainly on exports, and due to shrinking demand in global markets they had no choice but to lay off employees as well as to cut production.
Turkish carmaker Tofaş, a joint venture between Italian-owned Fiat and Turkey’s Koç Holding, recently halted auto production due to shrinkage in the auto market, while OYAK-Renault and Bosch also announced cuts in production in response to falling demand.
source: Today’s Zaman
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