The services sector employed 49.3% of the Iranian employed population (11.46 million) in the last Iranian year (March 2020-21), 1% less than the year before, whereas industrial and agricultural sectors generated 33.3% and 17.4% of jobs respectively.
Latest data released by the Statistical Center of Iran show over 7.74 million were employed in the industrial sector, indicating an increase of 1.3% compared with the year before and 4.04 million worked in agriculture, posting a 0.3% decrease YOY.
The services sector consists of wholesale and retail trade; restaurants and hotels; transport, storage and communications; financing, insurance, real estate and business, as well as community, social, education, health and personal services.
The sector employed 9.43 million men and 2.03 million women last year; over 6.8 million men and 941,566 women were working in the industrial sector, and 3.36 million men and 678,689 women worked in the agriculture sector.
Services accounted for 58.7% or 10.11 million of all jobs in urban areas and 24.7% or 1.35 million of jobs in rural areas. The industrial sector made up 34.9% or 6.02 million of the jobs in urban areas and comprised 28.7% or 1.72 million of employment in rural areas. This is while 6.5% or 1.12 million of the total jobs in urban areas and 48.6% or 2.91 million of the jobs in rural areas were in the agriculture sector.
Last year’s overall employment rate was 37.3% (23.26 million), down 2.1% compared with the year before. Employment rates for men and women were 62.9% and 11.7%, respectively, which constituted 19.6 million men and 3.65 million women.
The employment rate was 36.2% or 17.26 million in urban areas and 41% or 5.99 million in rural areas.
The share of employment of university graduates stood at 25% of the total employed population, wherein male and female graduate employment rates were 21.4% and 44.3%, respectively.
Graduate employment rates in urban and rural areas stood at 30.8% and 8.1% of the total population of job-holders.
Last year’s statistics show that 34.4% of the country’s labor force worked more than 49 hours per week, indicating a 3.6% decrease over the same period of last year.
The 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.
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).
SCI put last year’s 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 — 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.
According to SCI, 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 a job.
PPI Inflation at All-Time High
The services sector experienced the highest average annual inflation in the last fiscal year (March 2020-21).
The average Producer Price Index for the services sector in the year to March 20, which marks the end of last fiscal year, increased by 37.8% compared with the year before, the Statistical Center of Iran reported.
This is the highest annual inflation experienced by the services sector since the winter of 2013 (the earliest available data on services producers' inflation on SCI’s website).
The services PPI (using the year ending March 2017 as a base year) stood at 290.3 in the fourth quarter of the last fiscal year (Dec. 21, 2020-March 20), indicating a 7.3% increase compared with the preceding quarter.
The index measured for Q4 producer inflation in the services sector indicates a 42.6% increase compared with the same quarter of the year before – the highest year-on-year inflation since the spring of 2012 (the earliest available data on services producers' inflation on SCI’s website).
The services PPI is calculated based on the indexes of 13 subsectors, namely “water networks, wastewater management and wastewater treatment” with a coefficient of 1.2%, “repairing motor vehicles and motorcycles” with 2.8%, “transportation and warehouse services” with 23.2%, “services regarding accommodation and food” with 4.8%, “information and communications” with 8.5%, “insurance services” with 1.7%, “real-estate services” with 26.8%, “professional, scientific and technical activities” with 3%, “administrative and support services” with 1.7%, “education” with 9.3%, “social work services” with 14.2%, “art, entertainment and leisure” with 1.1% and “services categorized as others” with 1.8%.
