NCRI – According to an Iranian regime official, 10 million people in Iran are living under the absolute poverty line. The Director of Iran’s Statistics Office, Adel Azar, also said more than 30 million Iranians are currently living under the relative poverty line.
Some economic observers note that growth or decline are dependent on macroeconomic factors, and in view of the overall economic state Iran is in, there are no prospects for improvement in the current situation.
Unemployment has also been repeatedly referred to as one of the biggest challenges to the Iranian economy, threatening it both now and in the future. There is still debate about the rate of unemployment, but it has been said that the official rate stands at 11.9 percent, while the unofficial number exceeds 45 percent. The rate continues to fluctuate in some of the country’s provinces.
In the backdrop of high unemployment and poverty, Iran’s oil industry has faced a diminishing pace of production. The state-run Fars news agency has cited a Reuters report saying that Iran’s oil production has dwindled by about 40,000 barrels to 3,610,000 barrels per day. This is while OPEC’s production has hit its 17-month peak.
The decreasing production in the oil and gas field has affected the regime’s ability to counter mounting unemployment. The state-run ILNA recently quoted Isa Kamali, the Head of the Home of Worker organ in Bushehr, as saying that 52,000 people have lost their jobs in the gas-rich field of Osalouyeh in southern Iran over the past 4 years. He added that the regime’s plans to create employment are at best self-deceiving.
Concerns about unemployment were also reflected in the most recent Majlis (Parliament) Speaker press conference on Saturday, although there are disputes about where the responsibility for employment resides. No too long ago, the Cooperatives Ministry announced that he is in charge of creating employment opportunities in the country, while Mohammad Abbasi, the Cooperatives Minister, described employment as one of the government’s top priorities. The Deputy Minister of Planning for the ministry, Qolam-Hossein Hosseininia, also announced in an interview with Fars that he has been put in charge of “organizing employment” and not “creating employment opportunities.”
The government of the mullahs’ President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has claimed that a number of retirees have been hired altogether generating more than a million jobs through working at home.
