Q1 Underemployment at 8.3%: SCI

Underemployment, the condition in which people in a labor force are employed for less than 44 hours of service per week, stood at 8.3% in the first quarter of the current Iranian year (March 21-June 21), down 1.4% year-on-year and was higher for men and those living in rural areas, according to the Statistical Center of Iran.
The Q1 underemployment rate for men and women stood at 9% and 4.4%, respectively. It was 7.1% for urban areas and 11.9% for rural areas.
The unemployment rate, the proportion of the jobless population of ages 15 and above, stood at 8.2% in Q1, indicating a 1% year-on-year decrease.
A total of 2.16 million Iranians were unemployed in Q1. 
Men’s unemployment stood at 6.8% while the rate for women hovered around 14.8%. 
Over 1.49 million men and 673,071 women of ages 15 and above were jobless in Q1.   
The unemployment rate was 9% for urban areas (1.81 million people) and 5.6% for rural areas (353,929 people).
The total Q1 employment rate was 37.8% (24.3 million), up 0.7% compared with the same quarter of the last Iranian year. Employment rates for men and women were 63.7% and 12%, respectively, which constituted 20.43 million men and 3.86 million women in Q1. 
The employment rate was 36.8% (18.35 million people) in urban areas and 41.2% (5.95 million) in rural areas. 
The share of employment of university graduates stood at 26.5% of the total employed population, wherein male and female graduate employment rates were 22.9% and 45.7%, respectively. In urban and rural areas, graduate employment rates stood at 32.3% and 8.7% of the total number of job-holders, respectively. 
Q1 statistics show that 39.8% of the country’s labor force worked more than 49 hours per week, indicating a 0.5% decrease over the same period of last year.