Iran’s Job Market Male-Dominated

More than 20.65 million people were employed in Iran during the last Iranian year (March 2016-17), 83.8% of whom were men and 16.2% were women, the Statistical Center of Iran announced.  SCI’s statistics also show 21.6% of the employed men and 48% of the employed women had academic education, IRNA reported. Close to 7 million people were active in the gray market, of whom nearly 1.5 million were women.

Iran’s unemployment rate stood at 12.4% last year, registering a 1.4% rise compared with the year before. About 3.2 million Iranians were unemployed last year, of whom 10.5% were men (or 2.19 million) and 20.7% were women (or 1.01 million) of ages 10 and above. The youth unemployment rate, i.e. the proportion of the population between the ages of 15 and 29, stood at 25.9%, posting a 2.6% rise year-on-year.

SCI put last year’s labor force participation rate—the proportion of the population of ages 10 years and above that is economically active—either employed or looking for work—at 39.4% or 25.79 million people respectively, registering a 1.2% rise YOY.

Men’s and women’s economic participation rates were 64.1% and 14.9% respectively. In Iran, 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.