The employment rate in Iran in the second quarter of the current fiscal year (June 21-Sept. 21) stood at 37.8% (23.54 million), down 2.4% compared with the same quarter of last Iranian year.
According to the Statistical Center of Iran, Q2 employment rates for men and women were at 63.8% and 11.8%, respectively, that is 19.87 million men and 3.66 million women were employed during the period under review.
The employment rate was 36.5% or 17.38 million in urban areas and 42.1% or 6.16 million in rural areas.
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 share of employment of university graduates stood at 24.4% of the total employed population, wherein male and female graduate employment was 20.9% and 43.2%, respectively.
Graduate employment rates in urban and rural areas stood at a respective 30.1% and 8.1% of the total population of job-holders.
The unemployment rate, the proportion of jobless population of ages 15 and above, stood at 9.5% in the second quarter of the current Iranian year, indicating a 1% decline compared with the same period of last year, according to SCI.
A total of 2,477,350 Iranians were unemployed in Q2. Men’s unemployment stood at 8.1%, while the rate for women hovered around 16.5%. Over 1.75 million men and 725,433 women of ages 15 and above were jobless in Q2.
The unemployment rate was 10.6% for urban areas (2.06 million people) and 6.3% for rural areas (412,578 people).
SCI put Q2 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 41.8% or 26.01 million people, registering a 3.1% decrease year-on-year.
Men’s and women’s economic participation rates were 69.5% and 14.1% respectively in the same period.
A total of 21.62 million men and 4.39 million women of ages 15 and above were economically active in Q2, i.e., they were either employed or looking for a job.
Unemployment rate for university graduates stood at 14.9% in Q2, posting a 2.3% decrease YOY. Higher education unemployment rate for men stood at 10.9% and that of women stuck around 23.9%.
The share of higher education unemployment from the total unemployed population was 40.7% in Q2, which indicates a decrease of 3.1% year-on-year.
The unemployment shares of male and female graduates from the total unemployed population stood at 29.1% and 68.8%, respectively, while the share of higher education unemployment from the total unemployed population were 43.5% in urban areas and 26.5% in rural areas during the period.
