Scary Report from DISK-AR: The Number of Broadly Defined Unemployed Exceeded 12 Million, Unemployment Rate Increased to 29.6 Percent!

ANKARA - The Research Center of the Confederation of Revolutionary Trade Unions (DİSK-AR) has published the August 2025 Unemployment and Employment Outlook Report. The report, based on TurkStat's July 2025 data, reveals that contrary to the official narrow-definition unemployment figures, the real unemployment picture in Turkey is much more dire. According to the report, the number of broadly defined unemployed, including the millions who have stopped looking for work, reached 12 million 30 thousand and the broadly defined unemployment rate reached 29.6 percent.

Broad Definition Unemployment Increases by 1.3 Million in One Year

The DİSK-AR report drew attention to the rapid climb in broad-defined unemployment, despite TurkStat's announcement of a narrow-defined unemployment rate of 8 percent. The number of broadly defined unemployed, which was 10 million 693 thousand in July 2024, increased by 1 million 337 thousand people to 12 million 30 thousand in July 2025. This increase shows that the structural problems in the labor market in Turkey have deepened.

According to the report, broadly defined unemployment includes not only job seekers, but also people who have given up hope of finding a job (the hopeless) and those who work less than 40 hours per week but want to work more (time-based underemployment). The increase in the number of these groups proves that although the narrowly defined unemployment rate appears low, employment problems are growing. In the last year, the number of hopeless people increased by 1 million and the number of underemployed people increased by 681 thousand.

Women and Youth Unemployment Alarming

One of the most striking data in the report is on female unemployment. The broad-defined female unemployment rate remains the highest category at 39.4 percent. This situation reveals the extent of the difficulties women face in labor market participation and employment. While the narrowly defined unemployment rate for young people is 15 percent, this rate rises to 21.7 percent for young women.

Unemployment Benefit Falls Short

Another important finding in the DİSK-AR report is the inadequacy of the unemployment insurance system. As of July 2025, 83 percent of the unemployed are not eligible for unemployment benefits. This means that millions of unemployed people are deprived of social security and left to face economic hardship.

The concluding section of the report emphasizes that narrowly defined unemployment figures are insufficient to understand the labor market and that the political power ignores this picture and pursues policies that are far from solving the real problem.