Broad unemployment in Turkey exceeds 11 million: Women's unemployment draws attention

The Research Center of the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey (DİSK-AR) released its latest report in January 2026, based on data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) for December 2025.

The report revealed that unemployment in the country has evolved into a fundamental and structural crisis, far beyond the official figures.

The gap between the narrow-defined unemployment rate of 7.7 percent announced by TÜİK and the 28.6 percent broad-defined unemployment rate calculated by DİSK-AR reached 20.9 percentage points.

Despite the decline in the narrow-defined unemployment rate, it was stated that the increase in broad-defined unemployment is continuing rapidly. The number of broad-defined unemployed, which was 9.6 million in December 2023, was recorded as 11 million 593 thousand in the same period of 2025. In the last two years, 1.9 million more people have been added to the ranks of the unemployed.

Women's unemployment stands out as one of the most important issues highlighted in the report.

The broad-defined women's unemployment rate rose to 38.3 percent. While this rate was measured at 22.8 percent for men, the gap between women's and men's unemployment reached 15.5 percentage points. The report stated that the number of broad-defined unemployed women reached 5 million 664 thousand.

There was also an increase in the number of people whose working hours are insufficient and who cannot find the opportunity to work more despite wanting to. The number of those working less than 40 hours per week who want to work full-time increased by 156 thousand in the last year, reaching 3.7 million. In addition, the potential labor force, consisting of those who want to work but cannot find a job, was calculated at 5.2 million people.

Access to social protection continues to be a serious problem. Of the 2 million 736 thousand people classified by TÜİK as narrow-defined unemployed, only 513 thousand were able to receive unemployment benefits. Thus, approximately 81.2 percent of the officially unemployed, or 2.2 million people, did not receive any support from the state.

In conclusion, the report revealed that the problems of unemployment and underemployment in Turkey are far from sustainable, and that women and the unemployed who are deprived of social protection are struggling to survive under much more difficult conditions. The findings indicate that employment policies will be subject to further debate in the future.

News Source: 12punto