Iran Suffers From Poor Productivity

Average annual hours actually worked per person in Iran are at 800, a report by the Statistical Center of Iran announced.

For Japan, South Korea, China, Turkey, Germany, Pakistan and Afghanistan, the average stands at 2,420, 1,900, 1,420, 1,330 1,700, 1,100 and 950 respectively.

The productivity of Iranian civil workers is below 30 minutes per day while that of blue-color workers is under 2 hours, the lowest among the workforces of regional countries.

This comes as the government spends 1,250 trillion rials ($28.4 billion) of its resources on paying eight million workers every year, the Majlis Research Center said.

Today, the Iranian economy needs investment and productivity more than ever, the Persian weekly Seda reported.

Foreign funds are hardly injected into the economy due to political pressure. Under the conditions, improving workers’ productivity (and not the hours they put in) is key to addressing the country’s economic woes.

The government’s swelling payroll cost with the annual addition of new workers poses a major challenge.

Experts believe an important reason behind low productivity in Iran is the reduction in real wages.  A 2010 paper on labor productivity coordinated by Firouz Fallahi, a professor at Tabriz University, argues that higher wages will encourage workers in Iran to work harder.