Turkey’s broadly defined unemployment rate rose to a record 31.5 percent in March, official data showed, indicating deepening strain in the labor market despite a decline in the narrow unemployment rate.
TurkStat, which released its “Labour Force Statistics, March 2026” report on Wednesday, said its broad measure, which includes discouraged workers, underemployed people and others excluded from the standard definition, increased by 1.6 percentage points from the previous month.
By contrast, the narrowly defined unemployment rate fell 0.3 percentage points to 8.1 percent. The number of unemployed people aged 15 and above declined by 96,000 to 2.873 million.
Unemployment stood at 6.8 percent among men and 10.7 percent among women.
Employment rose by 226,000 to 32.425 million, pushing the employment rate up 0.3 percentage points to 48.5 percent. The rate was 66 percent for men compared to 31.5 percent for women.
The labor force increased by 129,000 to 35.298 million, with the participation rate edging up 0.1 percentage points to 52.8 percent, including 70.8 percent for men and 35.3 percent for women.
Youth unemployment among people aged 15 to 24 fell 0.5 percentage points to 15.3 percent, with the rate at 12.8 percent for young men and 20.4 percent for young women.
Sharp fall in insured employment
Separate data from the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey (TEPAV) pointed to weakness in employment trends, suggesting that official figures may not fully capture the scale of labor market deterioration.
According to TEPAV’s January 2026 Employment Monitoring Bulletin, the number of insured workers declined by 1.057 million over the previous six months, while total insured employment fell by 421,834 in January alone to 25.45 million.
The steepest job losses were recorded in labor-intensive manufacturing sectors, particularly clothing production and textiles, while gains were concentrated in services such as retail, health care, food services and education.
Although official data showed improvement in the narrow unemployment rate, TurkStat’s figures continue to face skepticism from critics and opposition figures, who accuse the institution of understating the extent of economic deterioration and labor market stress in Turkey.