A report from the Iranian Statistical Center shows that over 70 percent of the country’s unemployed population falls within the age group of 18 to 35 years old.
According to the Eco Iran website, the active population in the summer of 2023 reached approximately 26.8 million people. The analysis indicates that during this summer, 2.115 million individuals were unsuccessful in finding employment and were considered as unemployed.
This economic website, based on available statistics, states that in the summer of 2022, there were 1.643 million unemployed individuals aged 18 to 35 in the Iranian job market.
Meanwhile, a review of official statistics shows that the unemployment rate for women is 9 percentage points higher than that of men.
The Etemad newspaper has also emphasized, in its analysis of these statistics, that since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, over three million individuals have been added to the “working-age population” in Iran. However, an equal number of jobs have not been created, and a significant portion of the new job seekers remain unemployed.
The regime’s Etemad newspaper also emphasized the unacceptable labor force participation rate in Iran and stated: “In recent years, the participation rate was around 50 percent, which dropped to 41.5 percent in the summer.”
To better understand Iran’s situation in this indicator, Etemad referred to the participation rates in neighboring countries. According to the newspaper, in 2020, the economic participation rate was 86 percent in Qatar, 63 percent in the Republic of Azerbaijan, and 50 percent in Turkey.
Another issue in the Iranian job market is the excessive working hours beyond the specified standards. Based on this, an examination of the share of workers aged 15 and above with more than 44 hours of work per week shows that 40 percent of workers typically work 49 hours or more per week. This indicator, which is one of the indicators of decent work, shows that in Iran, a significant number of workers exceed the standard working hours.
The narrative of the Statistical Center regarding employment represents the government’s perspective, while field reports and videos shared on social networks represent the public’s perspective, which indicates a different situation than the government’s narrative.
Unemployment in small cities, especially in border cities, as well as the departure of a portion of the job-seeking population from the market, which has improved the statistics in favor of the government, indicates the failure of Ebrahim Raisi’s promises to create one million jobs annually.
In the April to June 2023 quarter, the share of unemployed individuals with higher education degrees accounted for 40.8 percent of the total unemployed. An analysis of the changes in this indicator shows a 1.1 percent increase compared to the same period last year.
Analysis of statistics in this field shows that the share of unemployed individuals with higher education degrees from the total unemployed population in the country was approximately 40.2 percent in the spring of 2021, which had decreased to 39.7 percent in the spring of 2022. However, in the current year, this trend has once again increased.
The term “active population” refers to the total number of employed and unemployed individuals in the country.
Examining the statistics related to the labor force situation for the entire year of 2022, as presented by the Statistical Center of Iran, indicates that 938,461 individuals of the country’s graduates were unemployed. This means that in the past year, 12.9 percent of the total active population with higher education degrees were unemployed.
According to official reports, there are currently 2,348,957 unemployed individuals in Iran. Analyzing the share of “educated unemployed population from the total unemployed population of the country” indicates that 40 percent of the unemployed individuals in the country have higher education degrees.
Despite various policy measures taken in different periods, employment and unemployment remain one of the most significant challenges in the Iranian society, alongside high inflation and persistent increases in the costs of living, which have created difficult conditions for Iranian families.
