Turkey’s broadly defined unemployment rate was 28.6 percent in September, with a 1.2 percentage point decrease compared to the previous month, according to official figures from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat).
TurkStat released its “Labour Force Statistics, September 2025” report on Monday.
According to the data, the number of narrowly defined unemployed people, which refers to individuals aged 15 and above who were not employed during the referenced period, actively searched for a job through at least one job-seeking channel in the past four weeks and were ready to start work within the next two weeks, increased by 12,000 to 3.075 million in September compared to the previous month, while the narrowly defined unemployment rate remained 8.6 percent.
Broadly defined unemployment, which also includes those who have lost hope of finding a job, are not actively seeking employment but are ready to work, seasonal workers and those with time-related underemployment, decreased by 1.2 percentage points to 28.6 percent in September compared to the previous month, which decreased since a five-year high of 32.8 percent in June.
The number of employed persons decreased by 200,000 to 32.491 million in September compared to the previous month. Employment stood at 48.9 percent, demonstrating a 0.3 percentage point decrease. It was 66.3 percent among men and 31.8 percent among women.
The TurkStat data also showed the labor force participation rate decreased to 53.5 percent in September, with a 0.3 percentage point decrease. It was 71.6 percent among men and 35.7 percent among women.
Although TurkStat data paint a positive picture of the unemployment rate in general, the institution’s statistics are met with skepticism. It faces frequent accusations of masking the real unemployment and inflation rates in order to hide the economic deterioration in the country.