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.

Higher education graduates make up about a fourth of Turkey’s labor force of 32 million, which comes across as a positive outlook. Yet 12-13% of the educated labor force is unemployed and the uptick in the rate is a source of serious concern. The main reason behind the trend has to do with the quality of higher education in Turkey. The schooling rate in the 18-22 age group has reached nearly 46%, meaning that almost half of the young people in the said age group have had the opportunity to continue studying after high school. The problem is that holding a degree in Turkey does not necessarily mean being a qualified professional in demand.

The number of universities in the country has reached 206, including 129 state universities and 77 private ones, according to figures by the Higher Education Board, which coordinates and supervises universities. All of the country’s 81 provincial capitals have at least one university, and many towns are home to a faculty or some other tertiary school. Yet, out of the nearly 7 million students currently enrolled in those universities, only some 4 million attend regular programs that require their physical presence at school, while the remaining 3 million study mostly on the basis of distance education, involving TV and online courses.