The employment rate in the third quarter of the current fiscal year (Sept. 22-Dec. 20, 2020) was 37.5% (23.41 million), down 2.1% compared with the same quarter of last Iranian year.
Employment rates for men and women were 63.2% and 11.8%, respectively, which constituted 19.72 million men and 3.69 million women, according to the Statistical Center of Iran.
The employment rate was 36.4% or 17.41 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 was 21.6% and 43.6%, respectively.
Graduate employment rates in urban and rural areas stood at 30.8% and 8.4% of the total population of job-holders respectively.
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 unemployment rate, which is the proportion of jobless population of ages 15 and above, stood at 9.4% in Q3, indicating a 1.2% decline compared with the same period of last year.
A total of 2,435,717 Iranians were unemployed in Q3, such that men’s unemployment stood at 8.1% while the rate for women hovered around 15.9%.
Over 1.73 million men and 700,153 women of ages 15 and above were jobless in Q3.
The unemployment rate was 10.2% for urban areas (1.97 million people) and 7.2% for rural areas (465,111 people).
SCI put Q3 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 41.4% or 25.84 million people, registering a 2.9% year-on-year decrease.
Men’s and women’s economic participation rates were at 68.8% and 14.1% respectively.
SCI’s reports show that 21.45 million men and 4.39 million women of ages 15 and above were economically active in Q3, i.e., they were either employed or looking for job.
