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Türkiye’s unemployment rate plunged by 0.8 percentage points to 7.7% in December 2025, marking its lowest level in more than two decades. The decline comes as a new government employment program targeting the youth labor force appears to be curbing joblessness across the country.
According to official figures released by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) on Thursday, the number of people without a job but actively seeking work and available to start within two weeks fell by approximately 286,000 to 2.73 million.
The sharp improvement in overall unemployment was driven primarily by decreases among women and young people. According to the breakdown, unemployment among women declined by 1.1 percentage points to 10.5%.
In the same month, the jobless rate among youth aged 15–24 dropped by 1.1 percentage points to 14.1%.
The rate of the composite measure of labor underutilization, also known as broad unemployment, fell by 0.3 percentage points from the previous month to 28.6%. However, the employment rate declined slightly by 42,000 people, dropping to 32.68 million and corresponding to 49.1% of the working-age population.
The figures follow the government’s unveiling of a youth employment program in early January 2026, designed to tackle rising joblessness among young people. The number of individuals aged 15–34 who are neither in employment, education, nor training (NEET) continues to grow rapidly, reaching nearly 7 million in the latest reported period.
As part of the ₺445 billion ($10.24 billion) employment package, the government announced it would cover the first six months of wages for individuals aged 18 to 25 who are hired under the program, in collaboration with the private sector. Separately, participants aged 15 to 34 who enroll in training programs run by the state employment agency will receive a daily stipend of ₺1,375.
Commenting on the figures, Labor and Social Security Minister Vedat Isikhan highlighted that the unemployment rate had fallen to its lowest level since 2005 and had remained in single digits for 32 consecutive months.
“We aim to integrate 3 million young people into the workforce over the next three years—one of the most ambitious initiatives in our labor market history,” Isikhan said, referring to the program. "We continue to work toward reducing unemployment, increasing qualified employment, and strengthening our labor market."
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