Out of 3.2 million unemployed people in the fiscal 2017-18, about 1.8 million or more than 56% experienced frictional unemployment (those who were not working because they were in between jobs or formerly employed).
Men accounted for 1.6 million of this population group, according to a new report by the Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare.
The biggest cause of their unemployment was the temporary nature of their jobs, comprising 25%.
Low wage (16.3%), expulsion or layoff (14%) and completion of mandatory military service (13.5%) were other main reasons behind the unemployment of formerly employed population.
These four causes were also cited as key reasons behind unemployment in the fiscal 2016-17.
Iran’s unemployment rate stood at 12.1% in the last Iranian year, which ended on March 20, registering a 0.3% drop compared with the year before.
A total of 3.21 million Iranians were unemployed last year.
Labor force participation rate—the proportion of the population of ages 10 years and above that is economically active either employed or looking for work—stood at 40.3% or 26.58 million people, registering a 0.9% rise compared with the year before.
Women's unemployment rate stood at 19.8% while men's joblessness hovered at 10.2%; that is, over 2.17 million men and 1.03 million women of ages 10 and above were jobless last year.
Men’s and women’s economic participation rates were 64.5% and 16% respectively last year.
According to SCI, 21.35 million men and 5.23 million women of ages 10 and above were economically active last year; that is, they were either employed or looking for work.
The unemployment rate was 13.4% for urban areas (2.63 million people) and 8.2% for rural areas (572,913 people).
SCI releases two figures for the youth unemployment rate: the proportion of the population between 15 and 24 years and those between 15 and 29.
The youth unemployment rate of those between 15 and 24 years, stood at 28.4% last year, posting a 0.8% decrease while the unemployment rate of those between 15 and 29 stood at 25.3% last year, posting a 0.6% decrease compared with the year before.
The services sector employed 50.4% of the Iranian population (11.77 million), whereas industrial and agricultural sectors provided 32% and 17.6% of the population with jobs respectively.
Over 7.48 million were employed in the industrial sector and 4.1 million worked in the agro sector last year.
The services sector employed 9.54 million men and 2.22 million women last year.
Over 6.41 million men and 1.06 million women worked in the industrial sector and 3.21 million of men and 894,351 women worked in the agriculture sector last year.
Services sector accounted for 60.1% or 10.21 million of all jobs in urban areas and 24.4% or 1.5 million of the jobs in rural areas.
The industrial sector made up 34.5% or 5.8 million of urban employment and 25.5% or 1.62 million of rural employment whereas 5.4% or 919,228 of the total jobs in urban areas and 50% or 3.19 million of the jobs in rural areas were in the agriculture sector.
