April 15, 2016
Unemployment rose last year, despite the government’s focus on creating jobs, according to the official figures from the Statistical Center of Ira (SCI).
The SCI said unemployment at the end of the Persian year was 11.0 percent, up 0.4 percentage points from a year earlier.
Iran’s figures grossly understate the unemployment rate because of the very loose definition of employment used in Iran, but the official figures are believed to show the direction the unemployment rate is taking.
Actual unemployment, as measured by European and North American standards is generally believed to be at least double if not triple the official rate.
The male unemployment rate was calculated at 9.3 percent and the female rate at 19.4 percent. The urban rate was 12.2 percent and the rural rate 8.1 percent.
A major problem is finding jobs for young people leaving school. The unemployment rate for those aged 15 to 24 was put at 26.1 percent, a jump of 1.4 percentage points from the previous year. For women, it was 42.8 percent and for men 22.3 percent.
By province, the lowest rate of 7.3 percent was recorded in Tehran and East Azerbaijan. The worst rate was 17.7 percent in Kohgiluyeh va Boyer Ahmad province in the south.
As for where Iranians are working, the SCI said only 18.1 percent are still employed in agriculture, with 32.5 percent in industry and 49.4 percent in the service sector. In the United States, by contrast, 80.1 percent of employment is in the service sector now, just 12.7 percent in industry and 1.4 percent in agriculture with 5.7 percent self-employed,
Meanwhile, the new year got off to a start with some labor unrest. About 700 workers at the Haft Tappeh Segar Refinery went on strike to protest non-payment of wages and to oppose the planned privatization of the plant. The Iranian Labor News Agency said the men complained that March wages and the Now Ruz bonus (normally and extra’s month’s pay) had only been given to two-thirds of the work force.
And in Khorasan Rezavi province, provincial authorities said about 2,000 workers in the auto parts industry had been laid off during the last year because Saipa, the second largest automaker in the country, had not paid its bills to its parts suppliers.