Unemployment Rate for 2014 Announced: 10.6 Percent

The Statistical Center of Iran announced that the unemployment rate in Iran for the year 2014 increased by two-tenths of a percent compared to the previous year, reaching 10.6 percent. According to this report, more than two and a half million people from the active population aged 10 and older in Iran were unemployed last year. The unemployment rate among women was about 20 percent (19.7 percent) and among men was less than 9 percent (8.8 percent). The report also states that the unemployment rate in urban areas of Iran was 11.6 percent, while in rural areas it reached 7.89 percent. Furthermore, the economic participation rate also reached 37.2 percent last year, which represents a decrease of 0.4 percent compared to 2013, indicating the removal of some employed individuals or the discouragement of some job-seeking unemployed individuals in the labor market last year. The report defines an employed person, according to the International Labour Organization, as someone who has worked for at least one hour in a week. The slight increase in the unemployment rate and the slight decrease in the economic participation rate occurred despite the Central Bank of Iran announcing a preliminary economic growth rate of 3 percent for the last year; comparing these two reports suggests that the achieved economic growth was either so minimal that it did not lead to effective job creation in Iran's economy or that the growth occurred in sectors of the economy that did not necessarily create jobs. The report also indicates that the unemployment rate for youth aged 15 to 24 in Iran reached 25.2 percent. The highest employment share, at 48.3 percent, occurred in the service sector, while the agricultural sector accounted for less than 18 percent (17.9 percent) of employment in Iran last year. The Statistical Center of Iran, as the official reference for economic statistics in Iran, published the unemployment rate report for 2014 on Wednesday, significantly delayed, along with the results of labor market developments in the last winter and this spring. According to the results from the Statistical Center of Iran's labor force survey in this spring, the unemployment rate in the first quarter of this year rose by two-tenths of a percent to 10.8 percent. Meanwhile, the economic participation rate in this spring also reached 38 percent, which is an increase of 0.9 percent compared to the same quarter of 2014 and an increase of 0.7 percent compared to the previous quarter, which was last winter. The unemployment rate for youth aged 15 to 24 in Iran this spring also reached 25 percent, experiencing a slight decrease compared to last year's average. The government of Hassan Rouhani managed to significantly reduce the inflation rate from over 40 percent to a fluctuating range of 15 percent since taking political power in mid-2013. Additionally, the economic growth rate during this period changed direction to a positive 3 percent after experiencing two consecutive years of negative growth in 2012 and 2013 (with growth rates of negative 6.8 percent in 2012 and negative 1.9 percent in 2013). However, it seems that the Rouhani administration has not had much success in job creation and reducing the unemployment rate so far. In this regard, the Deputy Minister of Interior reported a 40 percent unemployment rate in 11 cities in Iran, and the Minister of Labor announced that 7 million Iranians are engaged in informal jobs. The Rouhani government and economists; is the honeymoon period over? "The unemployment of graduates"; changing the game for "proxies"; war against the people in the streets of Iran.