A Salt Lake City-based Internet retailer — actually, the retailer’s handmade-goods division — is Afghanistan’s largest private employer. From Overstocking in Afghanistan:
These days, Worldstock employs more than 1,500 Afghan artisans among a worldwide network of craft workers. It’s an accomplishment that Overstock’s CEO, Patrick Byrne, attributes to both an upswing in online retail spending and reliable demand for inexpensive handmade rugs.That confluence of factors culminated this week in a confirmation by the Afghan Ministry of Commerce that Overstock is currently the largest provider of private employment in Afghanistan. According to Mariam Nawabi, commercial attach? for the Afghan Embassy in the United States, Overstock is currently believed to provide employment, directly or indirectly, for about 1,700 people living in Afghanistan.
Prior to Overstock’s arrival, Byrne was told that the country’s largest employer was a brick factory in the Western city of Herat, which had about 400 workers.