Ilam and Khorasan Razavi provinces registered the lowest unemployment rate of 5.1% among all Iranian provinces in the third quarter of the current fiscal year (Sept. 22-Dec. 20, 2020) while West Azarbaijan registered the highest unemployment rate of 15.5%.
Tehran Province, wherein lies the eponymous capital city, registered a 6.8% unemployment rate.
According to the Statistical Center of Iran, Iran’s overall unemployment rate 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. 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).
Seventeen provinces, namely Ilam (5.1%), Khorasan Razavi (5.1%), South Khorasan (6.6%), Semnan (6.7%), Tehran (6.8%), Zanjan (7.2%), Mazandaran (7.6%), Ardabil (7.8%), Qom (8%), North Khorasan (8.1%), Markazi (8.2%), Fars (8.2%), East Azarbaijan (8.4%), Sistan-Baluchestan (8.9%), Bushehr (9%), Golestan (9.3%) and Hamedan (9.3%) registered single-digit unemployment rates for people of ages 15 and above in Q3.
Hormozgan had the highest labor force participation rate (50.5%) and Sistan-Baluchestan Province had the lowest labor force participation rate (32.9%), whereas Tehran registered a 39.3% participation rate in Q3.
Khorasan Razavi registered the highest employment rate of 44.8% while Sistan-Baluchestan filed the lowest employment rate of 29.9% among all Iranian provinces.
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.
The SCI report shows 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.
Tehran’s employment rate stood at 36.6%.
Parliamentary Think Tank’s Account
The economically active population, including employed and unemployed persons, reduced by 1.62 million in the second quarter of the current fiscal year (June 21-Sept. 21), indicating a 3.1% decline in labor force participation rate compared with the corresponding period of last year, according to a report by Majlis Research Center, the research arm of the Iranian Parliament.
According to this report, 22.3% of the unemployed and 8.9% of employed persons were added to the economically inactive population in Q2. Had they joined the population of people looking for a job, the unemployment rate of the period under review would have been 18.5% rather than the official 9.5% announced by the Statistical Center of Iran.
The MRC report continues: “Of the more than 1.62 million people of active population that dropped out of the labor market in Q2, 1.01 million were women and 615,651 were men. The second quarter’s economic participation rate fell 3.1% year-on-year to reach 41.8%. In fact, women have experienced the biggest job losses in Q2. Out of 1.2 million people who lost their jobs in Q2, 460,000 were men and 750,000 were women.
Men and women’s participation rates dropped by 2.7% and 3.5% to hit 69.5% and 14.1%, respectively.
The services sector accounted for the biggest share of the unemployed: out of 1.2 million persons who lost their employment in Q2, 817,000 were from the services sector.
Of the 22 groups of economic activities, only three groups, namely “financial and insurance activities”, “construction” and “administrative activities and support services”, registered growth in employed population.
The sharpest declines were recorded by “accommodation and food services”, “information and communications” and “art, leisure and entertainment”.
