Newsletters
Türkiye’s unemployed population increased by 198,000 in September to 2.97 million, pushing the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate up 0.5 percentage points to 8.4%, official data showed Tuesday.
The monthly increase was the largest since August 2025, when the number of jobless people climbed by 208,000, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat).
Unemployment among people aged 15-24 rose by 1.6 percentage points from August to 14.8%, the sharpest increase among the main labor market indicators in the table. The rate reached 23.3% among young women, up from 19.9% in August, while the figure for young men climbed to 10.4% from 9.7%.
Across all age groups, the unemployment rate stood at 11.3% for women, compared with 6.9% for men. Both figures increased from the previous month, when the rates were 10.2% and 6.7%, respectively.
The number of employed people fell by 49,000 month-on-month to approximately 32.45 million in September, while the employment rate slipped by 0.1 percentage points to 48.3%.
The decline was reflected in the figures for women, whose employment rate fell to 31.2% from 31.4%. The rate for men remained unchanged at 65.8%.
Meanwhile, Türkiye’s labor force expanded by 149,000 to approximately 35.41 million. The labor force participation rate edged up 0.1 percentage points to 52.7%, with the rate for men rising to 70.7% from 70.5% and the rate for women increasing to 35.2% from 35.0%.
The number of people outside the labor force fell by 85,000 to approximately 31.76 million, according to the seasonally adjusted figures.
A broader measure of labor underutilization, which gauges unemployment in wider terms by including not only people without jobs but also those working fewer hours than they want and those who could enter the labor force, rose by 0.2 percentage points to 31.2% in September.
The combined rate of time-related underemployment and unemployment stood at 20.5%, while the combined rate of unemployment and the potential labor force reached 20.7%.
Set as preferred source
Set as preferred source
1 min read
1 min read
