About 600,000 of people have filed for unemployment because of the coronavirus pandemic over the past 20 days, says Hojjat Mirzaie, an official with the Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare.
“These people were mostly employed in the services sector,” he added.
Ali Rabiei, the government spokesman, said the economy could lose up to four million jobs.
“More than 12 million workers are employed in the services sector. The early impacts of unemployment can be seen in 10 business groups that were closed as soon as the virus was confirmed. Close to 3.3 million of the employed population in the official economy are directly affected by the crisis,” Rabiei was quoted as saying by the Persian-language daily Etemad.
In early April, Masoud Babaie, an official with the Cooperatives Ministry, said the government would allocate 50,000 billion rials ($316 million) to Unemployment Insurance Fund to support those who have lost their jobs amid the outbreak of coronavirus.
“To prevent the spread of the virus, applicants are urged to fill out online forms for unemployment benefits at the newly-designed website 'Bimebikari.mcls.gov.ir' within 30 days, instead of going to the ministry’s bureaus," he added.
“As per a joint guideline signed by the Cooperatives Ministry and the Social Security Organization on March 30, workers of 10 job groups and economic subsectors hit by the coronavirus outbreak and subject to the provisions of the Islamic Republic of Iran Labor Law, the Social Security Act and the Unemployment Insurance Law will qualify to receive unemployment benefits for three months,” he was also quoted as saying by IRNA.
The official noted that other policyholders, such as those who have insurance granted to the self-employed, construction workers and carpet weavers were not eligible for unemployment benefits.
Ali Rabiei, the government spokesman, says the economy could lose up to four million jobs
Earlier, the Central Bank of Iran released a list of businesses that have been directly affected by the outbreak of the coronavirus disease, COVID-19. These businesses can apply to receive bank support and facilities.
The list includes food preparation and distribution centers, including restaurants, teahouses and other such centers; tourism centers, including hotels, inns, hostels, road recreation and service providing centers and other such businesses identified by the Ministry of Industries, Mining and Trade; air, rail and road transportation whether inter- or intra-city; travel agencies; apparel production and distribution units; bags and footwear production and distribution units; distributors of nuts and dried fruit, confectioneries, ice cream and juice; sport and recreational centers; cultural and educational centers; and handicraft production and distribution centers, ILNA reported.
Iran’s unemployment rate, the proportion of jobless population of ages 15 and above, stood at 10.6% in the fourth quarter of the current Iranian year (Dec. 22, 2019-March 19), indicating a 1.7% decline compared with the same period of last year.
These numbers were calculated between Feb. 1-14, before the outbreak of coronavirus, when the labor market was in better shape, the latest report by the Statistical Center of Iran reads.
A total of 2,788,587 Iranians were unemployed in Q4. Men’s unemployment stood at 9.2% while the rate for women hovered around 17.2%. Over 1.97 million men and 812,902 women of ages 15 and above were jobless in Q4.
The unemployment rate was 11.4% for urban areas (2.23 million people) and 8.5% for rural areas (554,330 people).
The services sector employed 52.7% of the Iranian employed population (12.34 million), 1% more than the corresponding period of last year, whereas industrial and agricultural sectors provided 31.7% and 15.6% of jobs respectively.
Over 7.42 million were employed in the industrial sector, indicating a decrease of 0.6% compared with the year before and 3.65 million worked in the agriculture sector, posting a 0.4% decline YOY.
The services sector consists of wholesale and retail trade; restaurants and hotels; transport, storage and communications; financing, insurance, real estate and business services; as well as community, social, education, health and personal services.
The services sector employed 10.08 million men and 2.26 million women in the three-month period; over 6.39 million men and 1.03 million women were working in the industrial sector and 3.03 million men and 619,677 women worked in the agriculture sector in Q4.
Services sector accounted for 61.7% or 10.75 million of all jobs in urban areas and 26.5% or 1.58 million of jobs in rural areas. The industrial sector made up 33.1% or 5.78 million of the jobs in urban areas and comprised 27.5% or 1.64 million of employment in rural areas.
This is while 5.2% or 904,420 of the total jobs in urban areas and 45.9% or 2.75 million of the jobs in rural areas were in the agriculture sector.
