The services sector employed 51.9% of the Iranian employed population (12.03 million) in the fourth quarter of last Iranian year (Dec. 22, 2021-March 20), 1.5% higher than in the corresponding period of the preceding year.
The industrial and agricultural sectors provided 33.6% and 14.5% of jobs respectively in Q4, according to the Statistical Center of Iran.
Over 7.78 million were employed in the industrial sector during the period, indicating an increase of 0.2% year-on-year and 3.37 million worked in agriculture, posting a 1.3% decrease 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 sector employed 9.95 million men and 2.08 million women.
About 6.87 million men and 901,585 women were active in the industrial sector and 2.9 million men and 469,735 women worked in the agriculture sector.
Services accounted for 60% or 10.54 million of all jobs in urban areas and 26.6% or 1.49 million of jobs in rural areas. The industrial sector made up 34.8% or 6.11 million of the jobs in urban areas and comprised 29.8% or 1.66 million of employment in rural areas.
Notably, 5.3% or 925,570 of the total jobs in urban areas and 43.6% or 2.44 million of the jobs in rural areas were in the agriculture sector.
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 total Q4 employment rate was 36.6% (23.17 million), down 0.3% compared with the same quarter of the last Iranian year. Employment rates for men and women were 62.3% and 10.9%, respectively, which constituted 19.72 million men and 3.45 million women in Q4.
Employment rate was 36% (17.58 million people) in urban areas and 38.5% (5.59 million) in rural areas.
The share of employment of university graduates stood at 26.6% of the total employed population, wherein male and female graduate employment rates were 22.9% and 48.7%, respectively. In urban and rural areas, graduate employment rates stood at 32.2% and 8.9% of the total number of job-holders, respectively.
Q4 statistics show that 36.7% of the country’s labor force worked more than 49 hours per week, indicating a 1% increase over the same period of last year.
