Iran’s unemployment rate, the proportion of the jobless population of those above 15 years, stood at 9.2% in the fiscal 2021-22 (ended March 20), indicating a 0.4% year-on-year decline, says the Statistical Center of Iran.
According to the latest SCI report, a total of 2.4 million Iranians were unemployed in the year under review.
Men’s unemployment rate stood at 7.9% while that of women hovered around 16%.
Over 1.7 million men and 669,341 women of ages 15 and above were jobless during the year under review.
The unemployment rate was 9.9% for urban areas (1.94 million people) and 6.9% for rural areas (435,094 people).
Labor Force Participation, Youth Unemployment
SCI put the fiscal 2021-22 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 40.9% or 2.58 million people, registering a 0.4% decrease year-on-year.
Men’s and women’s economic participation rates were 68.7% and 13.3% respectively in the same period.
A total of 21.64 million men and 4.18 million women of ages 15 and above were economically active, 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 23.7% in the fiscal 2021-22, unchanged year-on-year while the unemployment rate of those between 18 and 35 years stood at 16.5%, posting a decline of 0.2% 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 10.2%, up 0.7% year-on-year and was higher for men and those living in rural areas.
The underemployment rate for men and women stood at 11.2% and 4.3%, respectively, while it was 9% for urban areas and 13.6% for rural areas.
The unemployment rate for university graduates stood at 13.6%, posting a 0.6% decrease YOY. Higher education unemployment rate for men stood at 9.7% and that of women stuck around 22.8%.
The share of higher education unemployment from the total unemployed population was 40.3% in the year under review, which indicate an increase of 1.4% year-on-year.
The unemployment shares of male and female graduates from the total unemployed population stood at 27.9% and 71.8%, respectively, while the share of higher education unemployment from the total unemployed population was 43.6% in urban areas and 25.6% 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 total fiscal 2021-22 employment rate was 37.2% (23.45 million), down 0.1% compared with the previous Iranian year. Employment rates for men and women were 63.3% and 11.1%, respectively, which constituted 19.93 million men and 35.15 million women in the fiscal 2021-22.
The employment rate was 36.3% (17.6 million people) in urban areas and 40.2% (5.85 million) in rural areas.
The share of employment of university graduates stood at 25.8% of the total employed population, wherein male and female graduate employment rates were 22.2% and 46.4%, respectively.
In urban and rural areas, graduate employment rates stood at 31.5% and 8.7% of the total number of job-holders, respectively.
Fiscal 2021-22 statistics show that 37.8% of the country’s labor force worked more than 49 hours per week, indicating a 1.3% increase YOY.
Sectoral Review
The services sector employed 49.8% of the Iranian employed population (11.69 million), 0.5% higher year-on-year whereas industrial and agricultural sectors provided 33.8% and 16.3% of jobs respectively.
Over 7.93 million were employed in the industrial sector, indicating an increase of 0.5% year-on-year and 3.83 million worked in agriculture, posting a 1.1% 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 9.67 million men and 2.02 million women in the year under review, such that 7.04 million men and 888,581 women were working in the industrial sector and 3.22 million men and 605,501 women worked in the agriculture sector.
Services accounted for 58.4% or 10.27 million of all jobs in urban areas and 24.2% or 1.42 million of all jobs in rural areas. The industrial sector made up 35.2% or 6.2 million of the jobs in urban areas and comprised 29.5% or 1.73 million of employment in rural areas.
This is while 6.4% or 1.12 million of the total jobs in urban areas and 46.2% or 2.71 million of the jobs in rural areas were in the agriculture sector.
Provincial Review
Zanjan Province saw the lowest unemployment rate of 6.5% among all Iranian provinces in the fiscal 2021-22, while Hormozgan registered the highest unemployment rate of 15.8%.
Eleven provinces, namely Ardabil (10.3%), Isfahan (10.6%), Kerman (11.2%), Kurdestan (11.7%), Yazd with (11.8%), Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari (12.3%), West Azarbaijan (12.4%), Lorestan (12.5%), Khuzestan (12.6%), Kermanshah (14.9%) and Hormozgan (15.8%), registered double-digit unemployment rates for people of ages 15 and above in the fiscal 2021-22.
Yazd had the highest labor force participation rate (47.8%) and Ilam had the lowest labor force participation rate (34.1%), whereas Tehran registered a 41.1% participation rate in the fiscal 2021-22.
Zanjan registered the highest employment rate of 42.5% while Ilam filed the lowest employment rate of 31.6% among all Iranian provinces. Tehran’s employment rate stood at 38.1%.
