Iran's Statistical Center: Unemployment Rate Reached 11% in 2015

On Wednesday, April 6, the Statistical Center of Iran announced in a report that the unemployment rate in 2015 increased by 0.4% compared to the previous year, reaching 11%. According to the report, alongside the rise in unemployment, the economic participation rate also increased by 1% from 37.2% in 2014 to 38.2% in 2015. The simultaneous growth of the economic participation rate and the unemployment rate in 2015 indicates that the number of applicants entering the job market has increased, and the growth of the population or the hope of the active population in Iran to find jobs has led more individuals to seek employment in Iran. Based on the statistical results of this report, the number of unemployed individuals aged 10 and older in 2015 reached 2 million and 729 thousand. The report specifies that the active population last year exceeded 24 million and 700 thousand. In another section of the report, the results of the 2015 labor force survey provide unemployment rates by gender among the active population in Iran. The unemployment rate for men last year was reported at 9.3%, while the unemployment rate among women was reported at 19.4%, indicating that the unemployment rate among Iranian women in 2015 was more than twice that of men. Additionally, the unemployment rate by urban and rural areas in 2015 showed that the unemployment rate in urban areas of Iran reached 12.2%, while the unemployment rate in rural areas was 8.1%. According to the report, the economic participation rate among individuals aged 10 and older was 63.2% for men and 13.3% for women, indicating a participation rate of approximately five times higher for men compared to women. The economic participation rate in urban areas was reported at 37.5% and in rural areas at 40%. The report also indicated that the unemployment rate among youth aged 15 to 24 was over 26%, which is 2.3 times the overall unemployment rate in Iran. Another section of the report focuses on the share of different sectors of the Iranian economy in employment; according to this, half of the employment in Iran is related to the services sector, which accounts for 49.4% of employment, while the industrial sector accounts for 32.5% and agriculture 18%. The highest unemployment rate among Iranian provinces was in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad, which reached 17.7%. The provinces of Kermanshah, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, Isfahan, and Lorestan followed with the highest unemployment rates. The lowest unemployment rate in 2015 was recorded in East Azerbaijan, which registered a rate of 7.3%. The provinces of Kerman, Markazi, Tehran, and Semnan followed with the lowest unemployment rates in 2015. Although President Hassan Rouhani's government has succeeded in reducing inflation from over 40% to less than 12%, it has not achieved similar success in job creation and stimulating the economy, leading to criticism from principlists and other political rivals of Rouhani's administration.