Iranian Job Market Analysis: How Long Employees Stay in Their Jobs?

EghtesadOnline: Of the 23.8 million people employed in Iran in the last fiscal year (ended March 20, 2019), 12.9 million or 54.2% stayed for fewer than 10 years in their main jobs.

News ID: ۷۴۸۱۷۱

14 August 2019

Job duration for around six million employees (25.3%) was between 10 and 20 years, the Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare’s Statistics and Strategic Data Center reported.

About 3.1 million employees (13.2%) worked between 20 and 30 years in their main jobs while job duration of only 1.7 million employed persons (7.3%) was more than 30 years.

The job duration of over 16.5 million employees (69.5%) was lower than 15 years, according to Financial Tribune.

On average, Iranian people stayed in their jobs for 11 years and 11 months last fiscal year, compared with 12 years and one month the year before.

The median tenure of female workers was around 10 years and five months last year compared with 10 years and nine months in the previous year.

Average job duration of male workers was 12 years and four months, indicating no change compared with the preceding year.

The employed population increased by 434,000 last year, of whom 34.6% were women.

Sectoral Perspective

In the last fiscal year, about 4.2 million were employed in agriculture sector, 7.6 million in industrial sector and 11.9 million in services sector. About 3,800 people were active in unidentified economic businesses.

Of the 4.2 million employed people in the agriculture sector, the job duration of 1.5 million (37.9%) was shorter than 10 years, about 956,000 (22.7%) worked for 10-20 years, around 711,000 (16.9%) for 20-30 years and around 947,000 (22.5%) for more than 30 years. The median tenure in the agriculture sector was around 18 years.

The industrial sector had employed more than 7.6 million people, employment in the main job of 4.2 million (55.5%) of whom was shorter than 10 years, about 2.1 million (27.7%) stayed in their jobs for 10-20 years, about 896,000 (11.8%) for 20-30 years and around 391,000 (5.1%) worked in their jobs for more than 30 years. The median tenure in the industrial sector was around 11 years and one month.

Of the 11.9 million employed in the services sector, the job duration of 7 million people (59.2%) was shorter than 10 years, 2.9 million (24.6%) worked for 10-20 years, 1.5 million (12.8%) worked in their main jobs for 20-30 years and 405,000 (3.4%) for more than 30 year. The median tenure in services sector was around 10 years and four months.

Reasons for Becoming Unemployed

Using data provided by the Statistical Center of Iran, the Cooperatives Ministry’s Statistics and Strategic Data Center discovered that 22.6% of workers left their job last year because of the temporary nature of their job, 16.8% due to low pay and 16.6% left due to layoff or downsizing.

The same three factors were to blame widely for Iranian workers quitting or losing their jobs in the year before, i.e. fiscal 2017-18 with 25%, 16.3% and 14% shares respectively.

Other reasons behind people leaving their jobs last year include permanent closure of the workplace (7.7%), seasonal nature of the job (5.1%), family issues (2.6%), illness (1.8%), relocation (0.6%), education (0.4%), migration (0.4%) and retirement (0.3%).

Up to 1.9 million of 3.3 million people who were counted as unemployed in the last fiscal year (2018-19) had been employed for some time in the preceding five years.

Out-of-Labor-Force Population at 53.9m

Iranians in their prime tend to be out of the labor force chiefly due to personal and family responsibilities, pursuing education and the fact that they don’t feel the need to work.

Iran’s population stood at 81 million people in the year ending March 2019, of whom 14.1 million were under 10 years old and 5.1 million were above 65 years old, suggesting that the age of 82.6% of the population was above 10 years and 76.3% were between 10 and 64 years.

According to a report, an estimated 53.9 million people were neither employed nor unemployed. In other words, they were outside the labor force.

About 35.4 million people of the out-of-labor-force population are in the working-age population (10-64 years), accounting for 65.6% of the population. Notably, women accounted for about two-thirds or 34.9 million of the out-of-labor-force population last year.

Close to 23.5 million people were out of the labor force due to personal and family responsibilities and the fact that they didn’t feel the need to work.

About 11.5 million didn’t look for a job because they were studying and 14.1 million were under the age of employment. On top of that, about 537,000 people dropped out of the labor force since they were disappointed over not finding a job.

Unemployment Rate at 12%

Iran’s unemployment rate, the proportion of jobless population of ages 10 years and above, stood at 12% in the last Iranian year (March 2018-19), indicating a 0.1% rise compared with the year before (March 2017-18).

A total of 3,260,796 Iranians were unemployed last year, according to the Statistical Center of Iran's latest report.

The unemployment rate for men stood at 10.4% while women joblessness hovered around 18.9%.

Over 2.25 million men and 1.01 million women of ages 10 and above were jobless last year.

The unemployment rate was 13.5% for urban areas (2.7 million people) and 7.9% for rural areas (553,883 people).

SCI 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 40.5% or 27.07 million people, registering a 0.4% rise year-on-year.

Men’s and women’s economic participation rates were 64.8% and 16.1% respectively last year.

According to SCI, 21.71 million of men and 5.35 million of women ages 10 and above were economically active last year; that is they were either employed or looking for job.

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

The youth unemployment rate of people between 15 and 24 stood at 27.7% last year, posting a 0.5% decrease while the unemployment rate of those between 15 and 29 years stood at 25.1%, posting no change compared with the previous year.

The total employment rate of last year was 35.6% (23.81 million). Employment rates for men and women were 58.1% and 13%, respectively; 19.46 million men and 4.34 million women were employed last year.

The employment rate was 34.4% or 17.38 million in urban areas and 39.2% or 6.43 million in rural areas.

The employment rate of university graduates stood at 23.9% of the total employed population, male and female graduate employment was 20.4% and 39.2%, respectively. Graduate employment rates in urban and rural areas stood at 30% and 7.2% of the total population of job-holders.