Turkey's 2025 University Graduate Employment Rate Falls to 73.9%

Turkey's statistical institute (TÜİK) released its 2025 Higher Education Employment Indicators. The registered employment rate for university (licence) graduates declined from 75.0% in 2024 to 73.9% in 2025, while the rate for associate‑degree graduates fell from 66.4% to 65.7%. The highest employment rates among licence programmes were recorded in medicine (95.5%), special‑education teaching (90.8%), aviation electrical & electronics (89.9%), mathematics engineering (89.8%) and nursing (89.8%). Among associate‑degree programmes, police vocational training led with 92.6% employment. The sector with the strongest field‑of‑study alignment was health and welfare (84.5% of graduates working in their field), followed by engineering, construction and ICT. Average time to first job shortened to 14.2 months for licence graduates and 15.8 months for associate‑degree graduates; the quickest placement was speech‑language therapy graduates at 2.4 months. The highest average monthly earnings were reported for piloting graduates, with other well‑paid engineering and aerospace programmes following.

These figures provide a detailed view of the Turkish labour market for recent graduates, highlighting both a modest downturn in overall employment and continued strength in health‑related and technical fields.