A Member of Parliament: Unemployment Rates in Kurdistan Exceed National Average

The head of the Kurdistan provincial representatives assembly states that the unemployment rate in this province is "higher than the average rate" in Iran, and the government must provide a "special program" to address this issue in the region. According to ISNA news agency, Mehdi Farshadan announced this on Thursday, September 30, describing Kurdistan as experiencing "backwardness" in job creation and adding that the 12th government must pay renewed attention to the issue of "supporting production and creating employment" in this region. He referred to the government's promise to create 950,000 jobs annually, stating that "if 15 percent of jobs are created in one province, in a province like Kurdistan, jobs should be created at 15 percent plus the amount of backwardness of that province." A member of the Parliament's Planning and Budget Commission noted the "sensitivity" and "border nature" of Kurdistan, adding that the government must provide a "different model from other provinces for job creation to reduce the gap with the national average." He criticized the fact that "development slogans" are proclaimed in Iran, but "nothing is practically done," and called for a transformation in the economic sector, referencing the designation of 1396 as the year of "resistance economy, production, and employment" by the Supreme Leader. This parliament member added that "if production does not flourish, employment will not be created, and the number of unemployed will increase next year. Therefore, the government must think about job seekers and also plan for job seekers in the coming years." These statements come amid recent remarks by Ali Rabiei, the Minister of Cooperatives, Labor, and Social Welfare, who stated that unemployment in Iran has reached 3.4 million people. According to Rabiei, the Iranian economy "does not have the capacity" to solve this problem and "cannot produce 1.4 million jobs annually." Previously, Nematollah Mirfallah Nasiri, head of the Strategic Information and Statistics Center of the Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor, and Social Welfare, stated that based on International Labor Organization (ILO) criteria, the unemployment situation in Iran is at a critical point. While Hassan Rouhani has declared reducing unemployment and creating jobs as the main goal of the 12th government, critics argue that government agencies have not been successful in addressing this issue.