Graduate Unemployment at 19.4%

The unemployment rate among male and female graduates was at 13.5% and 30.4% respectively. 

Out of 12.5 million university graduates, only about 7.1 million or 56.9% were economically active last year, of whom 5.7 million or 80.6% were employed and 1.4 million or 19.4% were unemployed. 

The economically active population last year increased by more than 424,000 compared with the year before while about 385,000 were added to the employed population and 39,000 to the unemployed population, Financial Tribune reported.

University majors with the highest unemployment included environmental protection and conservation (37.5%), biology (28.4%), architecture and construction (26.2%) and natural sciences (25.7%). This is while graduates of the health group registered the lowest unemployment rate of 8.7% last year.    

Men accounted for 52.6% of the graduate population last year, of whom 70.7% were economically active (86.5% employed and 13.5% unemployed) and 29.3% were economically inactive. 

Women made up 47.4% of the total population of graduates, of whom 41.6% were economically active (69.6% employed and 30.4% unemployed) and 58.4% were economically inactive last year. 

The highest graduate unemployment rates were registered for the provinces of Kermanshah (36.2%), Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari (27.1%) and Kerman (25.7%), while the lowest graduate unemployment rate was posted for Qom Province with 11.3%. 

According to the Statistical Center of Iran, Iran’s unemployment rate stood at 12.1% in the last Iranian year that ended on March 20, registering a 0.3% drop compared with the year before.

A total of 3.21 million Iranians were unemployed last year. 

The center has put last year’s labor force participation rate—the proportion of the population of ages 10 years and above that is economically active (either employed or looking for work)—at 40.3% or 26.58 million people, registering a 0.9% rise compared with the year before. 

The unemployment rate for women stood at 19.8% while it hovered around 10.2% for men, that is over 2.17 million men and 1.03 million women of ages 10 and above were jobless last year. 

Men’s and women’s economic participation rates were 64.5% and 16% respectively last year. 

According to SCI, 21.35 million of men and 5.23 million of women of ages 10 and above were economically active last year.

The unemployment rate was 13.4% for urban areas (2.63 million people) and 8.2% for rural areas (572,913 people).

SCI releases two figures for the youth unemployment rate: the proportion of population between the ages of 15 and 24 and those between the ages of 15 and 29.   

The youth unemployment rate of those between 15 and 24 years, stood at 28.4% last year, posting a 0.8% decrease while the unemployment rate of those between 15 and 29 stood at 25.3% last year, posting a 0.6% decrease compared with the year before. 

SCI’s latest report on Iran’s job market in the first quarter of the current fiscal year (March 21-June 21) shows that the employment rate of university graduates stood at 23.2% of the total employed population, of which male and female graduate employment was 20% and 37.5%, respectively.

Graduate employment rates in urban and rural areas stood at 29.4% and 7.1% of the total population of job-holders respectively. 

The share of higher education unemployment from the total rate of unemployment was measured to be 36.4% in Q1, which indicates a decline of 1% compared with the first quarter of last year. 

The unemployment rates for male and female graduates stood at 23.8% and 63.1% respectively while higher education unemployment rates were 17.4% in urban areas and 22.2% in rural areas during the period under review.