Services Sector Accounts for Half of All Employment

The services sector employed 49.4% of the Iranian population, whereas industrial and agricultural sectors provided 31.4% and 19.1% of the population with jobs respectively.

This was stated in the Statistical Center of Iran’s latest report on unemployment for the first quarter of the current Iranian year (started March 20).

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.

In its recent report, SCI put Iran’s unemployment rate in the first quarter of the current fiscal year at 12.2%. The figure registers a 1.4% increase compared with the corresponding period of last year and a 0.4% rise compared with the previous quarter (December 22, 2015-March 19, 2016).

The new data show 3.14 million Iranians were unemployed in spring. It also shows 10.3% of men and 20.3% of women of ages 10 and above were jobless in Q1.

According to SCI, the unemployment rate was 13.7% for urban areas and 8.3% for rural areas. In other words, joblessness was higher among women compared to men and among those living in urban areas than rural people.

The youth unemployment rate, i.e. the proportion of the population between the ages of 15 and 29, stood at 24.9% in spring, registering a 2.5% rise compared with the same period of last year and a 0.1% increase over last quarter.

 Provincial Joblessness, Labor Force Participation

The latest SCI data also show East Azarbaijan Province had the lowest unemployment rate among Iranian provinces with 6.3%, while Kermanshah Province filed the highest rate of 19.2%.

Twelve provinces, namely East Azarbaijan, West Azarbaijan, Bushehr, South Khorasan, North Khorasan, Khuzestan, Zanjan, Semnan, Gilan, Mazandaran, Markazi and Hamedan, registered single-digit unemployment rates in Q1. Tehran Province, wherein lies the capital city, posted a 13.5%.

The center has also put Q1 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 39.5% or 25.75 million people.

The figure shows a 1.5% rise compared with the corresponding period of the previous year and a 1.8% growth over the last quarter.

Men’s and women’s participation rates were 64% and 15.2% respectively. The economic participation rate was 38.7% for urban areas and 42% for rural areas.

Ardabil and Sistan-Baluchestan had the highest and lowest labor force participation rate by 44.3% and 30.7% respectively, whereas Tehran registered a 40.5% participation rate in 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.

 Grads Unemployment at 20%

According to Fariba Sadat Bani-Hashemi, an official with SCI, the unemployment rate recorded for graduates in spring was 20%, showing a 1.7% rise compared with the same quarter of last year.

A recent study by the High Center for Education and Research on Management and Planning–an organization operating under the president–analyzing data for the second quarter of the last fiscal year that ended on March 2016 shows that 49.2% of unemployed graduates were seeking a job without results for over a year. The figure falls to 33% for those without university degrees. That study also indicated that out of the 2.7 million people seeking jobs, 1.1 million were searching for over a year to no avail.

According to SCI, the unemployment rate for the last Iranian year stood at 11%, registering a 0.4% rise compared with the preceding year. This shows 9.3% of men and 19.4% of women of ages 10 and above were jobless last year. The unemployment rate was at 12.2% for urban areas and 8.1% for rural areas.

The center put last year’s labor force participation rate at 38.2%. The figure showed a 1% rise compared to that of the previous year. Men’s and women’s participation rates were 63.2% and 13.3% respectively.

 The youth unemployment rate stood at 23.3% last year, registering a 1.4% growth compared with the year ending March 20, 2015.

Just like the current year’s first quarter, the services sector employed 49.4% of the population. However, the industrial and agricultural sectors provided 32.5% and 18% of the population with jobs respectively last year.