NCRI – According to the Center for Statistics, the unemployment rate in Iran in the spring of 2016 compared to the first quarter of last year has increased nearly 1.5 percent. Unemployment among young people is very common and includes about 25 percent of them.
The Iranian regime’s Minister of Labour and Social Affairs, Ali Rabiei, had warned two years ago about a jump in the number of unemployed in Iran and emphasized that if the economic growth does not reach 7 percent per annum, “we will be unable to curb unemployment”.
Official sources have announced the economic growth in the past year to be a maximum of one percent. This fact and recent reports by Iran’s Statistical Center and the International Monetary Fund reveal inability of Rouhani’s government in curbing unemployment.
On Thursday October 13, the IRIB news agency, quoting the Statistical Center reported that the unemployment rate in the first quarter of this year was 12.2 percent which is 1.4 percent higher than the spring of last year.
Unemployment of a quarter of youths
Evaluation of employment in different economic sectors also reveals that the manufacturing activities do not have a considerable contribution in order to put into motion the disabled engine of economic growth.
According to the Statistics Center, in the spring of this year nearly half of the employees in the service sector, 31.4 percent in the industrial sector and about 19 percent in the field of agriculture were active.
In the first quarter of this year, nearly 25 percent of young Iranian people between 15 to 29 years old have been unemployed, and compared to the same period last year, this amount has increased 2.5 percent.
The Statistic Center’s data indicate that on all indices the levels of unemployment is higher among women than men and also in urban areas than in rural areas.
Hassan Rouhani’s government had hoped that after the nuclear deal and implementation of Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) quickly boost its economic situation and prepare the ground for employment, but on the ground the facts prove otherwise.
Rising unemployment in the 11th (Rouhani’s) government
Apparently, about 9 months after implementation of JCPOA, the economy is still engaged in the consequences of the crippling sanctions and mismanagement of the previous government, and economic prosperity has not been achieved to the extent and speed that the 11th (Rouhani’s) government officials had expected.
The International Monetary Fund said in a report released last week that Iran’s position in terms of the unemployment rate has dropped three places compared to last year. Moreover, estimates by this international body show that Iran at the beginning of the 11th government has been in 29th place among the world countries in terms of unemployment and following a decline in the past three and half years it has fallen to 22nd place.
International Monetary Fund has calculated the unemployment rate in Iran this year to be slightly less than 11.3 percent, which is nearly 1 percent less than the index provided by Iran’s Statistics Center.
If we extrapolate the statistics given by Iran’s Statistics Center on unemployment rate in Iran, the Islamic Republic will be ranked the 16th country in the world with the highest number of unemployment.
