Mounting unemployment has emerged as the most poignant aspect of Turkey’s economic crisis, which the International Monetary Fund expects to result in a 2.5% contraction this year. The number of jobless reached nearly 4.7 million in January, rising by more than 1.2 million over a year, according to figures released April 15 by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK). This puts the unemployment rate at 14.7%, an increase of 4 percentage points from the same period last year. Non-agricultural unemployment rose 4.1 percentage points to hit 16.8%. The jobless rate among young people aged 15-24 is even more alarming, climbing 6.8 percentage points to nearly 27%.
Remarkably, a breakdown by education shows that more than a fourth of the 4.7 million jobless hold higher education degrees.