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Broad unemployment in Türkiye has reached 28.6%, affecting 11.6 million people, according to a report released by the Confederation of Progressive Trade Union Research Center (DISK-AR), revealing a widening gap between official statistics and the true scale of joblessness.
DISK-AR's January 2026 report, based on Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) Household Labor Force Survey data from December 2025, found that while narrow (standard) unemployment was reported at 7.7% with 2.74 million unemployed, broad unemployment tells a starkly different story.
According to DISK-AR calculations, broad unemployment reached 28.6%, affecting 11. 59 million people—a gap of 20.9% points between narrow and broad definitions.
The ranks of the broadly unemployed have grown by 1.9 million people over the past two years, with 188,000 added in the last year alone.
While narrow unemployment fell from 8.9% in December 2023 to 7.7% in December 2025, broad unemployment climbed from 24.5% to 28.6% over the same period, demonstrating that standard unemployment figures fail to capture the true labor market picture.
The report highlighted women's unemployment as particularly concerning. Broad women's unemployment rose to 38.3%, while the male unemployment rate was recorded at 22.8%.
This resulted in a 15.5% point gap between female and male unemployment rates. A total of 5.66 million women are classified as unemployed.
Women's unemployment remains higher than men's across all categories, the report noted.
Youth unemployment also demands attention, with the narrow youth unemployment rate at 14.1% overall and 18.2% for young women.
The number of people in "time-related underemployment"—those working less than 40 hours weekly who want to work more—increased by 156,000 over the past year, rising from 3.52 million to 3.68 million.
The "potential labor force"—comprising discouraged workers, those not seeking work but ready to work, and those seeking work but unable to start immediately—rose by 371,000 to reach 5.18 million.
The report noted that the increase in broad unemployment is driven by growth in time-related underemployment, discouraged workers, and the potential labor force—with the primary underlying cause being the struggle to make ends meet amid economic difficulties.
A severe lack of social support among the officially unemployed is evident in the data. According to TurkStat figures, of the 2.74 million people classified as unemployed under the narrow definition in December 2025, only 513,000 received unemployment benefits.
This means 2.2 million officially unemployed individuals—81.2%—receive no support from the state. Effectively, eight out of every 10 unemployed workers cannot access unemployment benefits.
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