South Khorasan and Khorasan Razavi provinces filed the lowest unemployment rate of 6.2% among all Iranian provinces in the last Iranian year (March 2020-21), according to the Statistical Center of Iran.
This is while Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari and Lorestan provinces registered the highest unemployment rate of 15.2%.
Tehran Province, wherein lies the capital city, registered a 7.2% unemployment rate.
Fifteen provinces, namely Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari (15.2%), Lorestan (15.2%), Kermanshah (14.9%), Kurdestan (14%), Khuzestan (13.9%), Hormozgan (13.5%), West Azarbaijan (13.2%), Alborz (11.5%), Sistan-Baluchestan (11.4%), Yazd (11.1%), Isfahan (10.9%), Kohgilouyeh-Boyerahmad (10.9%), North Khorasan (10.8%), Kerman (10.6%) and Qom (10%), registered double-digit unemployment rates for people of ages 15 and above last year.
Hormozgan had the highest labor force participation rate (49%) and Sistan-Baluchestan had the lowest labor force participation rate (33.8%), whereas Tehran registered a 39.8% participation rate last year.
Ardabil registered the highest employment rate of 42.6% while Sistan-Baluchestan filed the lowest employment rate of 29.9% among all Iranian provinces. Tehran’s employment rate stood at 36.9%.
Iran’s overall unemployment rate, the proportion of jobless population of ages 15 and above, stood at 9.6% in the last Iranian year (March 2020-21), indicating a 1.1% decline compared with the year before.
According to the latest report by the Statistical Center of Iran, a total of 2,474,063 Iranians were unemployed last year. Men’s unemployment stood at 8.4% while the rate for women hovered around 15.6%. Over 1.79 million men and 678,399 women of ages 15 and above were jobless last year.
The unemployment rate was 10.4% for urban areas (two million people) and 7.2% for rural areas (464,726 people).
However, labor force participation rate—the proportion of the population of ages 15 and above that is economically active either employed or looking for a job—stood at 41.3% or 25.73 million people, registering a 2.8% decrease year-on-year.
Men’s and women’s economic participation rates were 68.7% and 13.9% respectively in the same period, down 2.4% and 3.1% YOY.
SCI reported that 21.4 million men and 4.33 million women of ages 15 and above were economically active last year, i.e., they were either employed or looking for job.
Sahand Faez and Abbas Khandan, two economists, explain that the decline in the unemployment rate does not mean labor market conditions have improved.
Both refer to labor force participation rate and insist on its importance for understanding the real condition of the economy. The labor force participation rate indicates the percentage of all people of working age who are either employed or are actively seeking work.
Because it accounts for people who have given up looking for work, this may make the labor force participation rate a somewhat more reliable figure than the unemployment rate.
By comparing unemployment with labor force participation, Khandan concludes that unemployment statistics do not represent an improvement in the labor market, rather they indicate negative growth in the economically active population.
"During the last Iranian year [ended March 20], due to the prevailing US sanctions and the adverse effects of the coronavirus epidemic on various sectors of the economy, the working population decreased. And as the situation persisted, more and more people ended their search for a job and became [economically] inactive. This is not good news at all, contrary to what was perceived at first glance from unemployment statistics," Khandan was quoted as saying.
Faez compares the unemployment of youth population of ages 15 to 24 with the total joblessness rate, noting that in a five-year period from the fiscal 2016-17 to 2020-21, the unemployment rate of youth population was nearly three times higher than the total jobless population.
"By studying these three indicators [labor force participation rate, youth unemployment rate, total unemployment rate] together, you can understand that the labor market did not welcome fresh labor force. As a result, the population's willingness to participate in the labor market was relatively low," he added.
In addition to youth joblessness, Faez compares unemployment among men and women.
“Although the total unemployment rate for men and women declined during the five-year period, the unemployment rate for women was twice as much as men’s. However, men’s unemployment and total joblessness were more or less equal. While the unemployment rate for men averaged 9.69% over the years under review, the average unemployment for women was at 18.49%,” he said.
"The single-digit unemployment rate reported by the SCI may indicate an improvement in labor market conditions, but a closer look negates this optimism."
At the end, it is understood that the decline in unemployment does not mean that more jobseekers could land a job, because the two economists believe more people became economically inactive.
