Turkey’s 31% youth NEET rate widens OECD labor gap

The OECD's Education at a Glance 2026 report put Turkey's youth NEET rate at 31%, the highest among OECD countries in the report.

The 2026 report said the share of young Turkish university graduates outside the labor force and not seeking work rose 5 percentage points from 2015 to 2025, while the OECD average fell 3 percentage points over the same period.

The OECD

NEET means people not in employment, education or training. For Washington, the figure offers a clean labor-market measure for a NATO ally whose domestic economic strains often sit behind debates on trade, investment and defense-industrial cooperation.

The report's comparison is sharper because the OECD average moved in the opposite direction. Turkey did not merely lag a peer-group improvement; its inactive graduate cohort grew while the broader club reduced that share.

The immediate economic issue is lost human capital. A university degree normally raises employment prospects and lifetime earnings, but the Turkish data point to a cohort that has education credentials without a corresponding entry into work or active job search.

If Turkey wants deeper co-production roles in NATO

The defense and technology angle is narrower but relevant. If Turkey wants deeper co-production roles in NATO supply chains, a high share of educated young adults outside work could weigh on the skilled labor pipeline that advanced manufacturing requires.

The main uncertainty is whether the rise reflects weak job creation, skills mismatch, discouraged workers, emigration intentions or some mix of those forces. The supplied data do not break down the causes, so the mechanism cannot be assigned to one driver.

If Turkey narrows the NEET gap in later OECD data, the macro effect would be stronger labor utilization; Turkish firms would face a deeper skilled hiring pool; and manufacturers tied to defense and technology would have a better case for expanded production roles.

If the gap stays wide, the macro drag would be lower potential output; Turkish employers would keep facing an underused graduate base; and foreign partners would have more reason to test whether workforce constraints limit industrial cooperation.