Türkiye’s unemployment rate rose to 8.4% in September, up 0.5 percentage points from August, according to labour force figures released by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) on Tuesday morning. The number of unemployed people aged 15 and over climbed by 198,000 to 2.967 million.
The seasonally adjusted rate for August was put at 7.9% in the comparison, slightly above the 7.8% first reported a month ago, when unemployment fell to 7.8% in August. TÜİK regularly revises earlier months as new data come in. According to Anadolu Agency’s report on the release, September’s rate was still 0.1 points lower than in September 2025.
Youth unemployment jumps
Unemployment among young people aged 15 to 24 jumped 1.6 points to 14.8%, Anadolu Agency and CNBC-e reported. The rate was 10.4% for young men and 23.3% for young women. Across all ages, unemployment was estimated at 6.9% for men and 11.3% for women, Anadolu Agency said.
The employment rate, the share of the working-age population in a job, eased 0.1 points to 48.3%, while labour force participation edged up 0.1 points to 52.7%, CNBC-e reported. Taken together, slightly more people were looking for work while slightly fewer had a job, in line with the higher headline rate.
Broader measure at 31.2%
TÜİK’s combined measure of labour underutilisation, which also counts people working fewer hours than they want and those available to work but not actively searching, rose 0.2 points to 31.2%. Average weekly working hours for people in employment slipped by 0.1 hours to 42.4 hours, according to CNBC-e.
The September reading is above the government’s own forecast. The 2027 Annual Programme published today expects unemployment to average 8.1% in 2026 and 8% in 2027, alongside 3.3% growth this year. Monthly figures are volatile, however, and a single month does not set the annual average.
For a wider look at household finances, see our cost of living in Türkiye guide.
TÜİK’s figures are seasonally adjusted and come from its monthly household labour force survey, which covers people aged 15 and over.
Sources
- İşsizlik oranı yükseldi, istihdam geriledi: TÜİK verileri açıkladı (CNBC-e)
- İşsiz sayısı eylülde 2 milyon 967 bine çıktı, işsizlik oranı yüzde 8,4’e yükseldi (AA via Sondakika.com)
Photo: Ibrahim Husain Meraj / CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
