Türkiye Labour Market: Unemployment, Participation and Youth in July 2026
Six charts examine employment, gender gaps, youth unemployment and labour underutilisation using one consistent release.
Prepared by MasVeri · · Our editorial method
The headline and the people behind it
Seasonally adjusted unemployment reached 8.1% in July 2026, with 2.860 million unemployed people. Compared with the preceding month, the rate increased by 0.5 percentage point and the count by 150,000. Reading both measures avoids treating a percentage as a complete description of the market.
Women’s unemployment was 10.6% and men’s 6.8%, a 3.8-point gap. The denominator is the labour force of each group, not every woman or man aged 15+. People outside the labour force are not all classified as unemployed. Charts consistently show total, women and men in that order, without implying a performance ranking.
Unemployment rate
% · 2026-07
July 2026; seasonally adjusted, ages 15+. Total, women, men.
Employment answers a different question
Employment totalled 32.362 million, down 388,000 in one month. The employment rate was 48.3% overall, 31.4% for women and 65.5% for men. The gender gap of 34.1 percentage points is much wider than the unemployment-rate gap.
Employment uses the population aged 15+ as its denominator. Subtracting unemployment from 100 therefore does not produce the employment rate. National differences may reflect age, education, region and household responsibilities among other factors. This comparison measures an observed gap; it does not identify its cause or estimate the effect of a particular policy.
Employment rate
% · 2026-07
July 2026; seasonally adjusted, ages 15+. Total, women, men.
Participation changes the frame
Labour-force participation was 52.5% overall, 35.2% for women and 70.3% for men, a 35.1-point gender difference. The labour force contained 35.222 million people, 238,000 fewer than in June. Employment and unemployment outcomes must be interpreted within this participation context.
The release counted 31.821 million people outside the labour force. They cannot all be treated as unemployed. Education, retirement, care, health and other circumstances may matter, but this aggregate does not quantify their distribution. Lower participation cannot be attributed entirely to preference or entirely to barriers without additional evidence.
Labour-force participation
% · 2026-07
July 2026; seasonally adjusted, ages 15+. Total, women, men.
Youth unemployment has a wider gap
For ages 15–24, unemployment was 14.5% overall, 20.3% for women and 11.3% for men. The nine-point gender gap exceeded the 3.8-point gap for the full 15+ group. Overall youth unemployment rose from 13.0% to 14.5%, an increase of 1.5 points.
Its denominator is the youth labour force, not the entire youth population. It is not the share of young people outside both employment and education. Young women’s monthly increase was 2.7 points, against 0.8 for young men. Monthly survey estimates can fluctuate, so this movement alone does not establish a persistent trend.
Youth unemployment
% · 2026-07
Ages 15–24, seasonally adjusted. Denominator: youth labour force, not all young people.
A consistent June–July comparison
The July release reports revised June unemployment of 7.6%, followed by 8.1% in July. Seasonal adjustment can revise past estimates, which makes using a single data vintage essential. Mixing a previous release’s June figure with the current July figure can confuse revision with economic change.
Employment fell 388,000, unemployment rose 150,000 and the labour force fell 238,000. These changes are arithmetically consistent. They do not track the same named individuals between states, however. Differences between aggregate estimates are not a longitudinal account of who left a job or stopped looking for work.
Unemployment over two months
% · 2026-06/07
Same data vintage in the July release: June 7.6%, July 8.1%.
Underutilisation broadens the picture
Seasonally and calendar-adjusted labour underutilisation was 30.6%, up 1.8 points. June is therefore derived as 28.8%. The measure includes time-related underemployment and potential labour force alongside unemployment, so it is not a second estimate of the same headline concept.
The 22.5-point distance from headline unemployment cannot be assigned directly to a separate population group. Definitions and denominators differ. The release also gives 20.8% for combined underemployment and unemployment, and 19.5% for unemployment plus potential labour force. These overlapping measures are not slices to add together.
Labour underutilisation
% · 2026-06/07
Seasonally/calendar adjusted. June derived as 30.6 − 1.8 = 28.8%; July 30.6%.
A framework for organisations
Recruitment and skills programmes need more than a national unemployment rate. Gender, age and participation differences identify questions for further research, but this report does not measure occupation-specific vacancies, wages, travel constraints or applicants’ skills. It cannot directly predict hiring difficulty.
Actual weekly working time among employed people at work averaged 42.0 hours after seasonal and calendar adjustment, down 0.4 hour. It is not an average for the whole population. Reading hours alongside employment, participation and unemployment provides a broader framework without determining any individual’s circumstances.
Method and limits
The sole source is TÜİK’s July 2026 Labour Force Statistics release 57999. General indicators concern ages 15+, while youth indicators concern ages 15–24. Adjustment methods follow the source. Percentage-point differences are kept separate from percentage changes.
MasVeri provides calculations, charts and interpretation. June underutilisation is derived from the published July level and monthly change and labelled accordingly. Rounding may cause small discrepancies. This is a fixed July-period report, not a claim about subsequent months; no unavailable historical observations have been estimated or inserted.
Source and coverage
TÜİK July 2026 Labour Force Statistics, release 57999, published 31 August. Ages 15+, youth 15–24. June figures use the same revised release. Later periods are excluded.
Unemployment rate · TÜİK ↗Employment rate · TÜİK ↗Labour-force participation · TÜİK ↗Youth unemployment · TÜİK ↗Unemployment over two months · TÜİK ↗Labour underutilisation · TÜİK ↗Executive summary
2026-07- Unemployment was 8.1% overall, 10.6% for women and 6.8% for men: a 3.8-point gap.
- Gender gaps were 34.1 points in employment and 35.1 in participation. These use different denominators from unemployment.
- Young women’s unemployment was 20.3%; overall labour underutilisation was 30.6%. The measures cover different populations.