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).
Labor Force Participation, Youth Unemployment
SCI put Q4 labor force participation rate—the proportion of the population of ages 15 and above that is economically active either employed or looking for job—at 42.4% or 26.22 million people, registering a 1.1% decrease year-on-year.
Men’s and women’s economic participation rates were 69.4% and 15.3% respectively in the same period.
SCI reports that 21.49 million men and 4.73 million women of ages 15 and above were economically active in Q4, i.e., they were either employed or looking for a job.
The center provides two figures for the youth unemployment rate: the proportion of the population between 15 and 24 years and those between 18 and 35 years.
The youth unemployment rate of those between 15 and 24 years stood at 25.7% in Q4, posting a 2.4% decrease while the unemployment rate of those between 18 and 35 years stood at 17.8%, posting a decline of 1.6% YOY.
Underemployment, Graduate Unemployment, Employment
Underemployment, the condition in which people in a labor force are employed for less than 44 hours of service per week, stood at 10.4%, down 1.1% year-on-year and was higher for men and those living in rural areas.
The Q4 underemployment rate for men and women stood at 11.5% and 4.9%, respectively, while it was 8.9% for urban areas and 14.7% for rural areas.
Unemployment rate for university graduates stood at 15.6% in Q4, posting a 2% decrease YOY. Higher education unemployment rate for men stood at 11.2% and that of women stuck around 24.7%.
The share of higher education unemployment from the total unemployed population was 39% in Q4, which indicates an increase of 1.4% year-on-year.
The unemployment shares of male and female graduates from the total unemployed population stood at 26.6% and 69.1%, respectively, while the share of higher education unemployment from the total unemployed population were 42.8% in urban areas and 24% in rural areas during the period.
Employment is defined as persons of working age engaged in any activity to produce goods or provide services for pay or profit, whether at work during the reference period or not at work due to a temporary absence from a job, or to working-time arrangement.
The Q4 employment rate was 37.8% (23.43 million), down 0.4% compared with the same quarter of last Iranian year. Employment rates for men and women were 63% and 12.7%, respectively, which constituted 19.51 million men and 3.92 million women in Q4.
The employment rate was 36.9% or 17.44 million in urban areas and 40.8% or 5.98 million in rural areas.
The share of employment of university graduates stood at 25.1% of the total employed population, wherein male and female graduate employment was 21.4% and 43.7%, respectively. Graduate employment rates in urban and rural areas stood at 31% and 8.1% of the total population of job-holders respectively.
Q4 statistics show that 35.3% of the country’s labor force worked more than 49 hours per week, indicating a 0.2% decrease over the same period of last year.
Sectoral Review
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 were active 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.
Provincial Review
South Khorasan Province registered the lowest unemployment rate of 6% among all Iranian provinces in Q4 while Kurdestan Province registered the highest unemployment rate of 20%.
Tehran Province, wherein lies the capital city, registered an 8.8% unemployment rate.
Twelve provinces, namely South Khorsan (6%), Markazi Province (6.9%), Ilam (7%), Fars (7.7%), Semnan (8.3%), Tehran (8.8%), Khorasan Razavi (8.9%), Hamedan (9.3%), Mazandaran (9.3%), Zanjan (9.3%), East Azarbaijan (9.5%) and Qom (9.7%) registered single-digit unemployment rates for people of ages 15 and above in Q4.
Hormozgan had the highest labor force participation rate (49.9%) and Markazi Province had the lowest labor force participation rate (35.6%), whereas Tehran registered a 41.7% participation rate in winter.
Hormozgan registered the highest employment rate of 44% while Sistan-Baluchestan filed the lowest employment rate of 32.1% among all Iranian provinces. Tehran’s employment rate stood at 38%.
