November 01, 2019
The Ministry of Labor says that, despite the ravages of US sanctions on Iran, the youth unemployment rate actually fell under 30 percent last year.
Many people dismiss the official figures on unemployment in Iran since the regime considers that anyone working an hour a week is employed. But at least the figures are generally assumed to show the direction in which unemployment is moving, up or down.
The Labor Ministry figures show that youth unemployment has fallen, albeit marginally, over the last five years.
The share of Iranian youths (ages 15-24) who were neither in employment, education, nor training (NEET, for short) fell from 31.6 percent in the Iranian year ending March 2015 to 29.7 percent last year, ending in March 2019, the report by the Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare shows.
NEET rates for men and women stood at 15.2 percent and 44.7 percent respectively at the end of last year.
The Labor Ministry’s previous NEET report showed Sistan va Baluchestan province registered the highest rate among the 31 Iranian provinces in the year ending in March 2017 with 48.2 percent of its youths not being in employment, education or training. This was while Semnan posted the lowest NEET rate of 22.6 percent.
Globally, an estimated 21.8 percent of young people are not in employment, education or training, and most of them are female, according to a report by the International Labor Organization, entitled “Global Employment Trends for Youth 2017.” Globally, the female NEET rate was at 34.4 percent, compared to 9.8 percent for males.
