The Main Reason for Declining Unemployment Rate in Iran is Reduced Job Demand, Not Government Job Creation

Economic experts, citing a report from Iran’s Statistical Center regarding an unprecedented decline in the country’s unemployment rate, say the center has concealed the main reason in its statistics—namely, the decrease in labor market participation rate.

The government news agency IRNA recently reported, quoting Iran’s Statistical Center: the unemployment rate in Iran last autumn decreased by half a percent to 9.8 percent.
Iran’s Statistical Center had previously reported the unemployment rate in spring of 1400 (2021) at approximately 8.8 percent, stating that out of every 10 Iranians, only 3 people are employed.

However, Farshad Momeni, an economic affairs expert, said in an interview with Iranian domestic media: “Less than 40 percent of Iranian households earn income through constructive and productive methods, while the rest are mostly engaged in unstable, low-quality, and informal jobs.”
This university professor, noting that the greatest decline in employment demand has been in the agricultural sector, emphasized: “We have experienced the most unprecedented deindustrialization in the past two decades in our country.”

Criticizing the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Trade, he said: With the openings created in oil trade exchanges and increased foreign currency generation for the country, we are witnessing greater efforts by MIMT to ‘increase imports,’ whereas this ministry’s duty is to support industry and production and create jobs in the country, not to enrich rentier importers.

The Labor Minister of Ibrahim Raisi’s administration also said last autumn: “Iran has more than 20 million unemployed or underemployed people.”
Abdolmaleki, in an interview with Radio and Television, described low-income employed individuals as 10 million and informal workers as 5 million people.

Source: Voice of America