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When it comes to unemployment rates of university graduates, Eurostat data places Türkiye as an outlier in the broader European context. As of 2024, Türkiye was the only country among 33 in Europe where the graduates face a higher unemployment rate than the general population. The anomaly talks by itself for the country’s deeper labor market dysfunctions and the limited absorptive capacity of its economy for degree holders.
A recent report by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK) also reveals mounting structural issues within Türkiye’s higher education-to-employment pipeline. The July 2025 report, titled Higher Education Employment Indicators, 2024, tracks outcomes for university graduates between 2014 and 2023. The findings suggest that a growing number of graduates are taking longer to secure jobs, often outside their field of study, and earning less than expected, raising questions about the long-term value of university education and the effectiveness of the country’s education-to-employment policies.
In 2024, the employment rate for bachelor’s degree holders fell to 75%, a notable decline from previous years. Associate degree graduates fared worse, with just 66% reportedly employed. While degrees in medicine and certain specialized fields continue to provide more secure pathways into the labor market, the overall trajectory reflects a declining return on investment for higher education.
Among bachelor's degree programs, medical graduates posted the highest employment rate at 96%. Other fields with strong labor market outcomes included special education teaching, electrical education, and speech and language therapy—all with employment rates above 90%. Sector-wide, the health sector remains the largest absorber of university graduates, employing 87% of those working in the field. Engineering and construction followed, with 83%.
Graduates from police vocational programs had the highest employment rates (92%) among associate degree holders, pointing to a continued demand for state-linked technical professions.
Despite relatively strong outcomes in specific sectors, most graduates face extended periods of unemployment after graduation. On average, bachelor’s degree holders took 14.4 months to find employment. For associate degree graduates, the job search period was even longer—16 months.
Graduates of speech and language therapy programs had the shortest transition period, averaging just over two months. Medical graduates also found jobs relatively quickly, with an average of four months. Broadly, graduates in the healthcare sector experienced the shortest job search durations, averaging around nine months.
The lag in employment for most other sectors reflects structural mismatches between the output of Türkiye’s higher education system and private sector labor demand, especially in low-growth or saturated fields.
When it comes to earnings, pilot training programs offer the highest average salaries among all bachelor’s degree tracks. Graduates in mathematics engineering, aerospace engineering, medicine, and aircraft engineering follow, suggesting that highly specialized or strategically prioritized fields still offer strong compensation.
Among associate degree holders, graduates from police vocational training programs reported the highest average incomes, reinforcing the security of public-sector aligned technical education.
Perhaps the most telling statistic in the report concerns the alignment between graduates’ education and their actual jobs. Only 56% of bachelor’s degree holders reported working in roles related to their field of study. Among associate degree holders, that figure drops to 51%.
This misalignment is most visible in the social sciences, journalism, and information fields—sectors with relatively low demand and few structured professional tracks. Conversely, the health sector again stood out, with nearly 80% of its graduates working in their trained profession, highlighting a rare point of consistency between academic training and labor market integration.
The data adds to the growing body of evidence suggesting that Türkiye’s university system is producing more graduates than the labor market can absorb, particularly in fields disconnected from industrial or service sector priorities. For Turkish policymakers, the findings underscore the need for curriculum realignment, stronger vocational pathways, and mechanisms to better match student enrollment with actual market demand.
As Türkiye continues to emphasize innovation, defense, and public infrastructure development, the most resilient degrees appear to be those aligned with state-backed sectors and technical specialization. For the rest, the promise of upward mobility through higher education is becoming increasingly difficult to fulfill.
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