Iran’s labor force participation rate—the share of the population ages 10 years and older working or actively seeking work—in the last fiscal year (March 2017-18) was 40.3% and included 26.58 million people, registering a 0.9% rise compared with the year before.
The lowest participation rate recorded over the period under review has been registered for 2011-12 at 36.9%, according to the Statistical Center of Iran.
It had fallen from 41% in the fiscal March 2005-6 to 39.4% in 2016-17, indicating a 1.6% percentage-point decline.
The fiscal 2015-16 marks the end of the downtrend of labor force participation rate in Iran, as the index improved by 1% compared with the year before.
Women’s labor force participation rates have always been below 17% over the period under review, hitting its lowest point (12%) in 2014-15. However, the rates for women improved by 1.3% and 1.6% in 2015-16 and 2016-17, respectively.
A downtrend has also been in place for labor force participation rates in rural areas over the 11-year period. However, a 0.9% and a 1% increase reversed this downtrend in 2015-16 and 2016-17, respectively. Participation rates had larger fluctuations in urban areas, registering a rise of 1% and 1.4% in this duration.
The downward trend of labor force participation in those years can be attributable to several reasons.
Labor force participation rate of the age group of 15-19 dropped from 22.7% in 2005-6 to 11.1% in 2015-16, which is a favorable change since the priority of people in this age should be education rather than work.
At the same time, participation rates for Iranians 65 years and above fell from 23.5% in 2015-16 to 11.8% in 2015-16.
Thanks to the rise in the capacity of universities, from 2.82 million in 2006-7 to 4.8 million in 2014-15, the participation rate of the 20-24 age group was on the decline over the period under review.
Labor force participation rates for women of ages 20 to 25 have always been higher than those of other age groups, suggesting that a large portion of women between 30 and 35 years chose to stay out of the labor force to care for their family and children.
Male labor force participation rates of different age groups followed the same trend as total participation rates. The participation rates of age groups 30-34, 35-39 and 40-45 have been above 90% over the period under review.
