Seyfettin Gürsel, Saliha Tanrıverdi
Young people “neither in education nor in employment” (NEET) constitute one of the most important indicators of the labor market. The NEET indicator tracks the situation of individuals aged 15–24 or 15–29 who have completed their education but are not currently employed. The higher the NEET rate, the larger the share of young people who are disconnected from both production and education in one country.
Türkiye has by far the highest NEET rate in Europe. As of 2024, the NEET rate among those aged 15–24 stands at 22.9 percent, placing Türkiye first among European Union countries. This figure reveals the existence of a structural problem in employment and education within the country.
Türkiye stands out not only for having a high NEET rate but also for an exceptional characteristic. In most European countries, the youth unemployment rate exceeds the NEET rate. In Türkiye, however, the opposite is true: while the youth unemployment rate is 16.4 percent, the NEET rate reaches 22.9 percent. This discrepancy indicates that the NEET phenomenon in Türkiye arises not only from unemployment but also from early withdrawal from education, gender-based roles, and structural barriers.
Within the scope of this study, the number of NEETs was revised using microdata from the 2023 Household Labour Force Survey (HLFS) conducted by TURKSTAT, and recalculated as 2.36 million (a detailed explanation is provided in the report). Accordingly, the NEET rate among the population aged 15–24 stands at 19.9 percent. Even with this revised figure, Türkiye continues to hold the highest NEET rate in Europe.
Approximately two-thirds of NEETs are women, and the female NEET rate exceeds that of men at every level of education. One of the most striking structural features of NEET in Türkiye is regional inequality. The highest rates are found in Southeastern Anatolia (31.5 percent) and Central-Eastern Anatolia (28.3 percent). Roughly 28 percent of all NEETs (745 thousand young people) live in these two regions. In Southeastern Anatolia, nearly half of all young women (40.6 percent) are neither in education nor in employment; in Central-Eastern Anatolia, the rate is 35.1 percent. This disparity is closely linked to the limited non-agricultural job opportunities in rural areas and the prevalence of unpaid family labor. The lowest NEET rate is observed in Istanbul (12.8 percent).
The 2023 microdata also show that a portion of NEET youth are, in fact, actively seeking employment. By definition, those looking for work are part of the labor force. As of 2023, 632 thousand young people (26.8 percent of NEETs) reported that they were seeking employment. When these individuals are excluded, the number of “pure NEETs” drops to 1.72 million, of whom 71.7 percent are women. The share of job seekers within the NEET population varies significantly across regions: the lowest share is in Southeastern Anatolia (14.3 percent) and the highest in the Eastern Black Sea region (45.9 percent).
From an educational perspective, the highest NEET rate is among those with higher education (26.7 percent). However, more than half of this group (53.5 percent) are actively looking for a job. This indicates that the main challenge facing young university graduates lies not in inactivity, but in obtaining employment that matches their qualifications.
Among the 464 thousand potential workers not actively seeking employment, nearly 70 percent state that they either previously searched for a job without success or believe that no suitable opportunities are available to them. This highlights the widespread job-related discouragement among young people.
Finally, marriage dramatically increases the likelihood of being NEET among young women. While 36 percent of female NEETs are married, only 4 percent of male NEETs are. The withdrawal of women from the labor market after marriage is closely associated with prevailing social norms and childcare responsibilities.
The persistently high NEET rates in Türkiye should be understood as the outcome of multiple structural factors—weak linkages between education and employment, gender inequality, and regional disparities. Addressing this issue requires not only employment policies but also comprehensive social programs and gender equality–oriented reforms.
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