The HR director of a Bursa automotive supplier opens the 2026 budget with two numbers pinned to the wall: 29.77% inflation and a net minimum wage of TL 28,075 that reset every pay band. The plant needs eight welders and a battery engineer by spring; the welder posts have been open since autumn and the one engineer at offer stage went to a defence firm in Ankara.
In Istanbul, a call-centre team lead watches her employer pilot an AI voice agent and decides to retrain. SOC-analyst bootcamp or data-engineering certificate: which will employers pay for?
Türkiye enters 2026 with unemployment at 8.4%, 32.4 million people in work and a composite labour underutilisation rate of 31.2%, according to TÜİK’s September 2026 release. Annual inflation ran at 29.77% in October 2026. İŞKUR-surveyed employers still cannot fill welders, sewing-machine operators and waiters, yet name software, AI, e-commerce and IT specialists as the occupations they expect to grow over the next decade.
This guide, part of the Rising Professions 2026 hub, ranks the professions rising fastest in Türkiye, explains the drivers, sets out pay in lira and dollars, maps credentials and ends with a hiring playbook. One caveat: LinkedIn published no Türkiye edition of Jobs on the Rise 2026 (its January 2026 lists covered the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, Singapore and Europe), so this ranking combines İŞKUR’s employer survey, Kariyer.net data, investment figures and salary guides.
Which professions are rising fastest in Türkiye in 2026?
AI engineers, cybersecurity specialists and software developers lead, followed by data scientists, defence engineers, renewable technicians, welders, nurses, logistics specialists and game developers.
What do they pay?
Kariyer.net expectations average TL 71,000 (≈$1,420) a month net for AI engineers and TL 83,400 (≈$1,670) for cybersecurity specialists; Reed puts experienced software engineers at TL 95,000–180,000 (≈$1,900–3,600), all against 29.77% inflation.
What should employers do?
Benchmark in lira quarterly, hire on tested skills, build apprenticeship pipelines, and use the 2026 work-permit thresholds for scarce foreign talent.
Which jobs are rising fastest in Türkiye in 2026?
AI engineers, cybersecurity specialists and software developers top Türkiye’s 2026 list, with data scientists, defence engineers, renewable-energy technicians, welders and CNC operators, nurses, logistics specialists and game developers close behind, according to İŞKUR’s employer survey, Kariyer.net data and sector investment figures.
| Rank | Profession | Why it is rising | Demand signal (source) | Typical advertised pay |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | AI engineer / AI developer | Named a ten-year growth occupation by İŞKUR employers | İŞKUR 2024 İPA; Kariyer.net 2026 (+18.9% pay) | TL 71,000 avg (≈$1,420) net/month (Kariyer.net 2026) |
| 2 | Cybersecurity specialist | KVKK compliance, banking and e-commerce | Kariyer.net 2026 (+41.4% pay) | TL 83,400 avg (≈$1,670) (Kariyer.net 2026) |
| 3 | Software developer / engineer | First among future occupations in İŞKUR’s survey | İŞKUR 2024 İPA; Reed 2025 | TL 95,000–180,000 (≈$1,900–3,600), 3–7 yrs (Reed 2025) |
| 4 | Data scientist / engineer | Retail, banking and gaming analytics | Kariyer.net 2026 scarce-talent list | TL 61,900 avg (≈$1,240) (Kariyer.net 2026) |
| 5 | Defence and aerospace engineer | Employment above 100,000; 158,000 target for 2026–2028 | Defence Industry Summit, Jan 2026 (+50%) | Electrical-engineer proxy TL 95,800 (≈$1,920) (Kariyer.net 2026) |
| 6 | Renewable-energy technician / engineer | YEKA auctions of 2,000 MW+ a year; 120 GW by 2035 | Energy Ministry, May 2026 (50,000 green jobs) | Not separately sourced |
| 7 | Welder (MIG/MAG) and CNC operator | Hardest-to-fill trades; 861,486 manufacturing vacancies | İŞKUR 2024 İPA; 2025 bulletin | Welder TL 66,400 (≈$1,330); CNC TL 56,200 (≈$1,120) (Kariyer.net 2026) |
| 8 | Nurse and allied health | 1.4 million international patients in 2025 | Kariyer.net 2026; USHAŞ 2025 | TL 50,700 avg (≈$1,010) (Kariyer.net 2026) |
| 9 | E-commerce logistics specialist | E-commerce TL 4.57 trillion (≈$115.5 billion) in 2025 | Ministry of Trade, May 2026 | TL 62,700 avg (≈$1,250) (Kariyer.net 2026) |
| 10 | Game developer (Unity/Unreal) | Gaming revenue $1.01 billion in 2025, +25% | Gaming in Türkiye 2025 (+59.1% pay, small sample) | TL 55,900 avg (≈$1,120) (Kariyer.net 2026) |
Almost every entry sits where an export policy meets a skills bottleneck: defence pulls engineers, YEKA auctions pull technicians, and the manufacturing base that generated 861,486 İŞKUR vacancies in 2025 still cannot find welders. Pay rises fastest where talent is mobile: Reed notes more than 35,000 technology professionals left Türkiye in 18 months. Kariyer.net’s September 2026 review draws the same line: security-guard and cashier posts draw hundreds of applicants, while technology and health roles stay open for want of qualified candidates.
What is driving demand for these professions?
Five forces drive Türkiye’s rising professions in 2026: a defence build-out targeting 158,000 jobs, renewable auctions of at least 2 GW a year, TL 4.57 trillion of e-commerce plus a billion-dollar gaming industry, higher-value health tourism, and export manufacturing that cannot fill skilled trades.
Defence and aerospace industrial policy
Türkiye’s defence industry employed more than 100,000 people by January 2026, and the Defence Industry Summit in Ankara set a target of 158,000 jobs for 2026–2028, a rise of more than 50%. Turnover is about $20 billion.
HR teams therefore compete with ASELSAN, TUSAŞ, Roketsan, STM, TEI and Baykar for the same electrical-electronics and embedded-software engineers that automotive and energy need. Industry Minister Mehmet Fatih Kacır cited 965 defence investments worth TL 369 billion over 23 years.
The energy transition and YEKA auctions
Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar declared 2026 the “year of wind”. Wind capacity has passed 15,000 MW, total capacity exceeds 125,000 MW (about 63% renewable), and after roughly 7,800 MW of YEKA tenders at least 2,000 MW a year will follow, 1,500 MW of it wind in 2026.
The 2035 targets are 120,000 MW of wind and solar, 5,000 MW offshore and about $30 billion of grid investment. The ministry counts about 50,000 green jobs including subcontractors, and domestic renewable manufacturers have grown from 27 in 2014 to about 500.
E-commerce logistics and the gaming studios
According to the Ministry of Trade, e-commerce volume reached TL 4.567 trillion in 2025, about $115.5 billion, up 52.2% in lira, with 634,000 online sellers and $5.1 billion of e-exports. That volume needs supply-chain planners and demand forecasters, not only couriers and warehouse staff.
The Türkiye Oyun Sektörü Raporu 2025 puts gaming revenue at about $1.01 billion for 2025, up 25% in dollars. Istanbul studios keep hiring Unity and Unreal developers and live-ops producers; Kariyer.net’s game-developer sample is small (48 data points), but its average pay expectation jumped from TL 35,121 in 2025 to TL 55,887 in 2026.
Health services and medical tourism
USHAŞ data reported in June 2026 show 1,398,580 international patients and about $3.02 billion in health-tourism revenue for 2025, with revenue per patient up about 10% to $2,200. Industry representatives expect more than 1.6 million patients and about $4 billion in 2026, raising demand for specialist nurses, technicians and multilingual patient coordinators.
Kariyer.net lists nurses, lab and radiology technicians and physiotherapists among health roles with growing openings. Nurse pay expectations rose 20.9% to TL 50,727, still below inflation, so private hospitals compete on housing, shift premiums and language training.
Export manufacturing and the skilled-trades gap
İŞKUR’s 2024 İşgücü Piyasası Araştırması, published in April 2025, surveyed about 86,000 workplaces. Manufacturing had the largest workforce need; the hardest-to-fill occupations were waiters, sewing-machine operators, welders, cleaners, plasterers and drivers, and workplaces with 20-plus staff reported a 29.7% open-position rate. The 2025 edition covered 85,503 workplaces.
İŞKUR’s bulletin counted 2,435,200 open positions in 2025, 98.6% private-sector, with manufacturing alone posting 861,486. Ford Otosan’s Yeniköy plant in Kocaeli and TOGG’s Gemlik plant in Bursa draw on the same welders, CNC programmers and battery engineers that defence and energy want.
What do the rising jobs pay in Türkiye?
Typical advertised monthly net pay in 2026 runs from about TL 50,700 (≈$1,010) for nurses to TL 83,400 (≈$1,670) for cybersecurity specialists on Kariyer.net, while Reed’s 2025 guide places experienced software engineers at TL 95,000–180,000 (≈$1,900–3,600).
| Role | Typical advertised range (monthly net) | Source / year |
|---|---|---|
| AI engineer | 0–1 yrs TL 48,800 (≈$980) · 15+ yrs TL 131,900 (≈$2,640) | Kariyer.net 2026 (2,712 users) |
| Cybersecurity specialist | 0–1 yrs TL 48,300 (≈$970) · 10–14 yrs TL 132,200 (≈$2,640) | Kariyer.net 2026 (1,796 users) |
| Software engineer / senior developer | TL 95,000–180,000 (≈$1,900–3,600); senior to TL 210,000 (≈$4,200) | Reed Türkiye 2025 |
| Data scientist | 0–1 yrs TL 45,800 (≈$920) · 15+ yrs TL 107,800 (≈$2,160) | Kariyer.net 2026 (136 users) |
| Electrical-electronics engineer | 0–1 yrs TL 55,600 (≈$1,110) · 15+ yrs TL 139,100 (≈$2,780) | Kariyer.net 2026 (44,573 users) |
| Welder (MIG/MAG) | TL 53,100–150,000 (≈$1,060–3,000); average TL 66,400 (≈$1,330) | Kariyer.net 2026 (1,970 users) |
| CNC operator | 0–1 yrs TL 42,100 (≈$840) · 10–14 yrs TL 63,000 (≈$1,260) | Kariyer.net 2026 (18,461 users) |
| Nurse | 0–1 yrs TL 38,100 (≈$760) · 10–14 yrs TL 62,000 (≈$1,240) | Kariyer.net 2026 (73,234 users) |
Kariyer.net’s figures are expectations candidates enter when applying, not offers; Reed’s are recruiter-observed 2025 ranges, and dollars use the Central Bank rate of about TL 50 on 6 November 2026. The real story is the gap to inflation: with CPI at 29.77%, only cybersecurity (+41.4%) and game development (+59.1%) saw expectations outrun prices, while AI engineering (+18.9%), nursing (+20.9%), CNC (+24.5%) and welding (+17.8%) lagged. The net minimum wage of TL 28,075 anchors every band.
Türkiye has no statutory pay-transparency regime and most adverts omit pay, so expectation data fills the gap. Istanbul carries the technology premium, Ankara the defence premium, while Kocaeli-Bursa and Aegean sites compete with housing and shuttle allowances. Treat all figures as typical advertised ranges, not promises.
Which skills, degrees and certifications unlock these roles?
Most rising roles reward a recognised engineering, nursing or vocational qualification plus one or two portable certificates: AWS or Azure AI credentials for AI engineers, OSCP, CEH or CISSP for security, GWO modules for wind, MYK vocational certificates for welders and Health Ministry registration for nurses.
- AI engineer: an engineering degree, a PyTorch or TensorFlow portfolio, and AWS Certified Machine Learning – Specialty, Azure AI Engineer Associate or Google Professional Machine Learning Engineer.
- Cybersecurity specialist: Kariyer.net notes OSCP, CEH and CISSP as common screening criteria; CompTIA Security+ is the entry route.
- Software developer / DevOps: AWS Certified Solutions Architect, Azure Developer Associate or Certified Kubernetes Administrator.
- Data scientist / engineer: SQL and Python plus Google Professional Data Engineer or Databricks certification.
- Defence and aerospace engineer: accredited engineering degrees, security clearance and embedded C/C++ with DO-178C experience.
- Renewable-energy technician: GWO Basic Safety and Basic Technical Training for wind, high-voltage electrician qualifications and the MYK vocational certificate.
- Welder and CNC operator: MYK welder certificates at level 3 or 4, EN ISO 9606 for export plants, Fanuc or Siemens programming.
- Nurse and allied health: a nursing degree and Ministry of Health registration, plus languages for health-tourism roles.
The kurums Courses & Certifications directory lists providers for these credentials, and the MBA & Business Education directory covers management programmes for engineers moving into leadership.
Where are the jobs? Regional hotspots
Istanbul concentrates technology, finance, e-commerce and gaming; Ankara is the defence and aerospace capital; the Kocaeli–Bursa–Sakarya corridor carries automotive and battery manufacturing; the Aegean hosts wind and solar build-out; and Antalya leads tourism and medical travel.
| Region | Rising roles | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Istanbul | Software, cybersecurity, data, fintech, e-commerce operations, game studios | Marketplace and bank headquarters; gaming cluster; highest tech pay |
| Ankara | Defence and aerospace engineering, embedded software | ASELSAN, TUSAŞ, Roketsan, STM and TEI; 158,000-job target; METU and Bilkent technoparks |
| Kocaeli – Bursa – Sakarya | Welders, CNC operators, battery and EV engineers | Ford Otosan Yeniköy and TOGG Gemlik plants |
| İzmir and the Aegean | Wind and solar technicians, high-voltage electricians, grid engineers | YEKA wind rounds (1,500 MW in 2026); offshore sites off Saros, Gökçeada, Bozcaada, Edremit |
| Antalya – Muğla | Nurses, patient coordinators, hospitality operations | Health-tourism hubs targeting 1.6 million patients in 2026 |
Which professions are losing ground?
Generic IT support and outsourcing roles, clerical and pre-accounting positions, and routine call-centre jobs are losing ground: TÜİK’s July 2026 paid-employee data show information and communication employment down 1.1% year on year, while İŞKUR data show job-seeker supply far exceeding demand for office work.
The information and communication dip is not a collapse of tech demand; finance and insurance employment rose 3.1% and professional and technical services 3.0% in the same release. It reflects consolidation of generic IT positions while specialised AI, security and data roles stay scarce.
Clerical work is the clearest oversupply: İŞKUR’s year-end 2025 data show office clerk, secretary and pre-accounting roles among the most sought by its 2.33 million registered job seekers, while open positions cluster in services, security, retail and manufacturing. Call-centre roles still fill, but employers are piloting AI voice agents. None disappears in 2026; they are simply where retraining pays off fastest.
How should employers in Türkiye hire for scarce rising roles?
Employers should benchmark pay in lira quarterly, hire on tested skills, build apprenticeship pipelines, open internal mobility routes, use the 2026 work-permit thresholds and Turquoise Card for foreign specialists, and consider an employer of record before setting up an entity.
- Benchmark against expectations, not last year’s payroll. The kurums recruiting in Türkiye playbook covers the severance rules that make a mis-priced hire costly.
- Hire on demonstrable skills. Use take-home tasks for technical roles and test trades on the machine; İŞKUR employers’ top reason for unfilled posts is missing experience or qualification, so train the gap.
- Build apprenticeship pipelines. Partner with vocational high schools, use İŞKUR’s İşbaşı Eğitim Programı to co-fund trainees, and sponsor MYK certification.
- Publish internal mobility routes from call-centre and clerical roles into SOC-analyst, data-analyst and logistics-planning tracks.
- Use the right immigration route. Foreign hires must earn a multiple of the gross minimum wage: 5× (TL 165,150, ≈$3,300) for senior managers, 4× (TL 132,120) for engineers, 3× (TL 99,090) for department managers and 2× (TL 66,060) for specialists, held for the permit’s full term. Highly qualified candidates can be sponsored for the Turquoise Card.
- Use specialists where it pays. For cleared defence engineers a retained firm is often faster; the guide to recruitment agencies in Türkiye compares fee models.
- Consider an employer of record if you lack a Turkish entity; it handles payroll, SGK and permit sponsorship.
- Compete on the total package. Meal cards and private health insurance matter more when pay trails inflation; see the employee benefits guide for Europe and Türkiye.
What should job seekers and career changers do in 2026?
Career changers should pick a target from the scarce list, earn one recognised certificate, build evidence in a portfolio or on a machine, move to the right city, negotiate in lira with an inflation clause, and prioritise export sectors.
- Choose scarcity over volume. A cashier post draws hundreds of applicants; a SOC-analyst or CNC-programmer post stays open for weeks.
- Earn one credential employers screen for: Security+ then OSCP for security; AWS or Azure for cloud and AI; MYK level 3 or 4 for welding; GWO for wind.
- Build evidence. A GitHub portfolio, a welding test certificate or a Unity demo turns a certificate into an interview.
- Go where the cluster is. Defence means Ankara; gaming and fintech mean Istanbul; wind means the Aegean; EV manufacturing means Kocaeli and Bursa.
- Negotiate in lira with an inflation clause and compare offers with medians for your experience band.
- Use public programmes. İŞKUR’s on-the-job training covers part of the retraining cost; the kurums Courses & Certifications directory lists providers.
- Watch the export sectors. Defence, renewables, gaming and e-export earn in foreign currency and can pay above inflation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Did LinkedIn publish a Jobs on the Rise 2026 list for Türkiye?
No. LinkedIn’s January 2026 editions covered the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, Singapore and Europe, so this guide ranks professions using İŞKUR’s employer survey, Kariyer.net data, Reed’s salary guide and investment figures.
What is the unemployment rate in Türkiye in 2026?
TÜİK’s seasonally adjusted figure for September 2026 was 8.4%, with 2.97 million unemployed and 32.4 million employed. Youth unemployment (15–24) was 14.8% and the composite labour underutilisation rate 31.2%.
How much do AI engineers earn in Türkiye?
Kariyer.net’s 2026 data, from 2,712 applicants, show an average of about TL 71,000 a month net (roughly $1,420), from TL 48,800 for new graduates to TL 131,900 at 15-plus years. These are expectations, not offers, and should be read against 29.77% inflation.
What salary must an employer pay a foreign engineer in Türkiye in 2026?
From 1 January 2026 the minimum gross monthly salary for a foreign engineer on a work permit is four times the gross minimum wage, TL 132,120 (about $2,640), excluding benefits. Senior managers need five times (TL 165,150) and specialists two times (TL 66,060).
Sources and method
- İşgücü İstatistikleri, Eylül 2026 — TÜİK via Alomaliye, 2026
- Ekim ayı enflasyonu yüzde 2,58 arttı — CNBC-e / TÜİK, 2026
- Ücretli çalışan istatistikleri, Temmuz 2026 — Foreks / TÜİK, 2026
- 2025 Yılı Türkiye İşgücü Piyasası Araştırması Raporu — İŞKUR, 2025
- Eleman temininde en fazla güçlük çekilen meslekler — Capital / İŞKUR, 2025
- 2025 yılında en çok işe alım yapılan meslekler — Ekonomim / İŞKUR, 2026
- Kariyer.net maaş verileri 2026 (yapay zeka mühendisi and sister pages) — Kariyer.net, 2026
- Salary Guide 2025 – Türkiye — Reed, 2025
- Savunma sanayii istihdamı 3 yılda yüzde 50 artacak — Ekonomi Gazetesi, 2026
- 2026 Yılı Rüzgârın Yılı Olacak — Alomaliye / Ministry of Energy, 2026
- Türkiye’de e-ticaret hacmi 2025’te 4,6 trilyon liraya ulaştı — T.C. Ticaret Bakanlığı, 2026
- Türk oyun sektörü 2025’te 1 milyar dolar sınırını aştı — CNBC-e / Gaming in Türkiye, 2026
- Sağlık turizminde rekor yılı — Takvim / USHAŞ, 2026
- Türkiye Minimum Salary Threshold 2026 — Envoy Global, 2025
Method: with no LinkedIn Türkiye edition of Jobs on the Rise 2026, the ranking combines İŞKUR’s employer survey and 2025 bulletin, Kariyer.net’s 2026 pay-expectation data, Reed’s 2025 salary guide and official sector figures. Dollars use the Central Bank rate of about TL 50 on 6 November 2026. Figures checked November 2026.
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