By Bosphorus News Türkiye Desk
Approximately 6.5 million people aged 15 to 34 in Türkiye are neither in education nor employment, revealing a widening break between the country's education system and labour market.
The figure comes from economist Alaattin Aktaş's analysis of Turkish Statistical Institute, or TurkStat, labour data. It covers a broader population than Türkiye's standard 15–24 definition of youth and does not mean that 6.5 million young people are unemployed.
The total includes people actively seeking work as well as those outside the labour force because of care responsibilities, discouragement, family circumstances or other barriers.
Even under narrower age definitions, Türkiye performs poorly.
Official data show that 23.3% of people aged 15 to 24 were not in employment, education or training in 2025. This category, commonly known as NEET, corresponds to roughly 3 million people in Türkiye's standard youth population.
The wider 15–34 calculation shows that exclusion from education and work often continues beyond the early twenties.
A broader measure than unemployment
The NEET population is not a single, uniform group.
Some are unemployed and looking for work. Others are not searching because they have lost hope, cannot access childcare, face health or family constraints, or believe available jobs do not match their qualifications or wage expectations.
The 6.5 million figure has circulated in Turkish media as evidence that millions of young people are simply "idle" or "jobless." Both descriptions flatten a much more complex picture.
The total includes people up to the age of 34, many of whom carry unpaid care responsibilities or have moved repeatedly between short-term jobs, informal work and periods outside the labour market.
Türkiye's official youth unemployment rate counts only those without work who are available and actively seeking employment. NEET data also include people who have left both education and the labour force.
Türkiye remains far above international averages
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, or OECD, uses several age ranges in its youth indicators, but each comparison points in the same direction.
For people aged 15 to 29, Türkiye's NEET rate is roughly twice the OECD average under comparable definitions.
Other OECD education indicators show that more than one-quarter of people aged 18 to 24 in Türkiye are outside both education and employment, compared with an OECD average of around 14%.
Türkiye's exact ranking changes according to the year and age group used, but it remains among the poorest-performing member countries.
The problem cannot be reduced to a temporary fall in recruitment.
Türkiye has expanded access to secondary schools and universities over the past two decades, but the transition from education into stable employment remains weak. More young people hold diplomas, yet the economy has not produced enough secure, productive and adequately paid jobs to absorb them.
Employers continue to report difficulty finding workers with the qualifications they need.
Türkiye is therefore facing two problems at once: companies say they cannot fill skilled positions, while millions of young people and young adults remain outside both education and employment.
Women are far more likely to be excluded
The divide is much wider among women.
A May 2026 report by the Ankara Chamber of Industry estimated that 36.5% of women aged 15 to 29 were neither in education nor employment, compared with approximately 16% to 17% of men.
Young women are more than twice as likely as young men to remain outside both systems.
The chamber linked the disparity to unpaid care work, social expectations, limited childcare and barriers to entering or remaining in formal employment.
Weak growth and insufficient job creation explain only part of the problem.
Women may leave education or work after marriage or childbirth and find it difficult to return. In some regions, limited transport, childcare and formal employment opportunities narrow their options further.
University education does not remove the imbalance. Women graduates also face a weaker transition into employment than men with similar qualifications.
Türkiye's low female labour-force participation feeds directly into the number of people outside both education and work.
Degrees no longer guarantee entry into work
University graduates are increasingly exposed to delayed or unstable entry into the labour market.
Separate calculations based on TurkStat data indicate that unemployment among university graduates under 25 was around 30% in late 2025, with a markedly higher rate among women.
This is an unemployment measure, not a NEET rate, but it points to the same failure in the transition from education to work.
Young graduates may spend long periods searching for work, preparing for public-sector examinations, taking unpaid internships or accepting jobs unrelated to their field of study.
The problem is not simply a shortage of qualifications. Universities often produce graduates whose training does not match the jobs being created.
Türkiye has increased the number of universities and graduates, while employment growth has remained concentrated in lower-productivity sectors, informal work and positions offering limited wage progression.
High inflation and rising living costs have also changed the calculation for new entrants. Entry-level wages may no longer cover housing, transport and food, particularly in major cities.
Some vacancies therefore remain unfilled while qualified applicants continue searching for work they can afford to take.
Industry sees lost productive capacity
The Ankara Chamber of Industry describes youth exclusion as a loss of economic potential.
Its report calls for closer cooperation between schools, vocational institutions and employers, stronger career guidance and training tied more closely to labour demand.
The economic cost extends beyond individual hardship.
Long periods outside work reduce future earnings, weaken tax revenues and increase pressure on families. They also make later entry into formal employment more difficult.
Employers may be reluctant to hire applicants with long gaps in their work history, while qualifications lose value when they are not used.
A temporary period outside education or employment can therefore become a lasting disadvantage.
Different methods produce different totals
Researchers have also questioned how Türkiye measures participation in education and training.
The Bahçeşehir University Center for Economic and Social Research, known as BETAM, used TurkStat microdata and a narrower definition of educational participation to produce a lower estimate for the 15–24 age group.
Its analysis put the number of NEET young people at approximately 2.36 million in 2023, corresponding to a rate of 19.9%.
The revised method lowered the total without improving Türkiye's comparative position. The country still ranked among those with the highest NEET rates in Europe.
Age range, reference year and methodology can move the estimate from about 2.4 million to 3 million or 6.5 million.
What does not change is the scale of the failure to move people from education into sustained employment.
The 6.5 million figure is not a simple unemployment count. It shows how many people remain outside two of the main institutions through which skills, income and economic independence are built.
Sources: Turkish Statistical Institute, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Ankara Chamber of Industry, BETAM, Ekonomim, Bosphorus News reporting and review