Türkiye’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell to 7.9% in the second quarter of 2026, declining by 0.3 percentage points from the previous quarter, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said in a statement on Wednesday.

The Household Labour Force Survey showed that the number of unemployed people aged 15 and over decreased by 84,000 from the previous quarter to 2.799 million.

The unemployment rate stood at 6.7% for men and 10.3% for women, highlighting a continued gap between male and female unemployment.

The number of employed people increased by 155,000 in the second quarter to 32.479 million, while the seasonally adjusted employment rate rose by 0.1 percentage point to 48.5%.

The employment rate was 65.8% among men and 31.6% among women, according to TurkStat.

The labour force also expanded, with the number of people in the labour force increasing by 71,000 to 35.278 million. Despite the increase, the seasonally adjusted labour force participation rate edged down by 0.1 percentage point to 52.7%.

The participation rate was 70.6% for men and 35.3% for women.

Youth unemployment among people aged 15-24 declined by 1 percentage point from the previous quarter to 13.9%.

The rate was significantly higher among young women, at 19.3%, compared with 11.0% among young men.

The services sector continued to account for the largest share of employment in the second quarter, employing 59.8% of all workers.

Compared with the previous quarter, employment increased by 10,000 in agriculture, 25,000 in construction and 240,000 in services, while employment in industry declined by 121,000.

By sector, agriculture accounted for 13.7% of total employment, industry for 19.7%, construction for 6.8% and services for 59.8%.

The figures indicate that the bulk of employment growth during the quarter came from the services sector, which more than offset declines in industrial employment.

Seasonally and calendar-adjusted average weekly actual working hours for people who were employed during the reference period increased by 0.1 hour from the previous quarter to 42.3 hours.

Despite the decline in the headline unemployment rate, broader measures of labour market weakness remained elevated.

TurkStat said the seasonally and calendar-adjusted composite measure of labour underutilization stood at 29.9% in the second quarter, down 0.2 percentage points from the previous quarter.

The measure includes unemployed people, those working fewer hours than they would like and the potential labour force.

The combined rate of time-related underemployment and unemployment was 19.3%, while the combined rate of unemployment and the potential labour force stood at 20.0%.

The data show that while Türkiye’s headline unemployment rate continued to decline and employment increased in the second quarter, broader measures of labour underutilization remained considerably higher than the headline unemployment figure. (ILKHA)