The employment rate among university graduates in Türkiye declined slightly in 2024, with newly released figures from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) showing that 75% of bachelor’s degree holders were registered in the workforce, down from 75.6% in 2023.

TurkStat’s annual Higher Education Employment Indicators bulletin provides a detailed overview of employment outcomes, job search durations, income levels, and consistency in field-related employment among graduates nationwide.

At the bachelor's level, the departments with the highest registered employment rates were medicine 96.4%, special education teaching 95.1%, electrical engineering 92.4%, and both speech and language therapy and electronics engineering 91.9%.

By educational field, health and welfare led with an 86.7% employment rate, followed by engineering, manufacturing, and construction at 82.9%, information and communication technologies at 78.7%, education at 77.6% and agriculture, forestry, fisheries and veterinary at 74.6%.

Among associate degree holders, the overall registered employment rate dropped from 67.7% in 2023 to 66.4% in 2024. The highest employment rates were found in police vocational training at 92.3%, electricity generation, transmission and distribution at 88.2%, industrial mold-making at 87.4%, metallurgy at 85.2%, and natural gas and installation technology at 84.5%.

The most successful educational fields at the associate level included engineering, manufacturing and construction at 76.9%, natural sciences, mathematics and statistics at 71%, services at 70.7%, information and communication technologies at 69.1%, and agriculture, forestry, fisheries and veterinary at 68.6%.

The average time it took for bachelor’s degree graduates to find their first job remained unchanged at 14.4 months in 2024, while the figure for associate degree holders slightly increased from 15.9 months to 16 months.

Among bachelor’s graduates, those in speech and language therapy found jobs the fastest, averaging just 2.2 months. They were followed by graduates of medicine at 4.1 months, special education teaching at 4.3 months, pharmacy at 5.1 months and midwifery at 7.6 months.

The fastest job-seeking fields at the bachelor's level included health and welfare at 8.9 months, engineering, manufacturing and construction at 11.6 months, information and communication technologies at 11.8 months, education at 12.6 months, and services at 13.7 months.

Among associate degree holders, police vocational training offered the shortest average job search period at 2.9 months, followed by opticianry at 9.4 months, culinary arts at 10.9 months, pharmacy services at 11.8 months, and civil aviation cabin services at 11.8 months.

The quickest job placements for associate graduates by field were in services at 13.7 months, natural sciences, mathematics and statistics at 13.9 months, engineering, manufacturing and construction at 14.5 months, health and welfare at 15.5 months, and information and communication technologies at 16.2 months.

Among bachelor’s graduates, pilot training produced the highest average monthly income. It was followed by mathematical engineering, aerospace engineering, medicine, and aeronautical engineering.

For associate degree graduates, the top 5 in terms of average monthly income were police vocational training, aircraft technology, retail sales and store management, brand communication, and electricity generation, transmission and distribution.

In 2024, 56.1% of wage-earning bachelor’s graduates (registered under SGK 4/A) were employed in occupations aligned with their field of study, slightly up from 55.6% in 2023. Among associate graduates, the figure declined from 51.5% to 51%.

The top fields where bachelor’s graduates were most likely to be working in their trained area included health and welfare at 79.9%, business, administration and law at 79.4%, education at 63.8%, engineering, manufacturing and construction at 63.7%, and information and communication technologies at 56.8%. The lowest alignment was observed in social sciences, journalism and information, where only 20.1% of graduates were working in related occupations.

For associate degree graduates, the best field-to-job alignment was found in business, administration and law at 64.8%, followed by engineering, manufacturing and construction at 60%, services at 59.1%, health and welfare at 44.5%, and natural sciences, mathematics and statistics at 44%. The lowest alignment again appeared in social sciences, journalism and information, at just 8%.