Iran's Long-Term Unemployment Hits 37.8% of Jobless Population

EghtesadOnline: Iran’s long-term unemployed population reached 37.8% of the total number of jobless in the last fiscal year (ended March 20, 2019).

News ID: ۷۴۸۴۵۱

16 September 2019

The long-term unemployment rate, which is the share of the labor force that has been without work for more than a year while actively looking for a job, was the highest for those between 25 and 29 years at 11%.

Higher education and expectations of finding a job suiting one’s qualification are the main reasons behind the long-term unemployment of this age group, according to a report by the Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare’s Statistics and Strategic Data Center.

The lowest long-term unemployment rate was registered for those of ages 30 and higher at 2.8%, which could be due to this age group's high priority of having a job over the nature of the job, Financial Tribune reported.

Last year, 23.6% of the unemployed population who had held a job over the past five years experienced long-term unemployment whereas the ratio stands at 57.5% for the unemployed population that never held a job.

What's more, 42% of men and 56% of women ages 25-29 from the unemployed population of over 15 years waited for a year or longer to land a job. Nearly 29.4% of men and 57.1% of women ages 30 or above also experienced long-term unemployment.

Those in the 15-29 age group constituted 52.9% of the total unemployed population in Iran last year.

Long-term unemployed population comprised 37.8% of the country’s total unemployed population during the period.

At 35.9%, the 25-29 age group had the largest share of those who remained jobless for more than a year.

The highest portion of unemployment, which lasted between seven and 12 months, was 31.8% for the 15-24 age group.

At 52%, those above 30 years had the largest share of those who remained jobless for less than six months.

Reasons for Quitting Jobs

An earlier report by the Statistics and Strategic Data Center showed 1.9 million of the 3.3 million unemployed people in the last fiscal year (2018-19) had stayed in their jobs for the past five years.

About 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% over layoffs 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 included permanent closure of 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%).

More People Becoming Self-Employed, Employer

Another recent report by Statistics and Strategic Data Center shows around 53.9% of the total employed population were those working for the private sector, cooperatives or public sector last year, while 46.1% of the employed population were employers, self-employed or worked for a family member without pay.

Men accounted for 81% and women constituted only 19% of all the jobs of the former group.

The share of people employed in the private sector, cooperatives or public sector have been on the decline between 2016 and 2019: In the fiscal 2016-17, about 55% of the total number of job-holders were working for the private sector, cooperatives or public sector, which dropped to 54.8% in the fiscal 2017-18 and 53.9% in the fiscal 2018-19.

The percentage of employers, self-employed or those working for a family member without pay increased from 45% in the fiscal 2016-17 to 45.2% in 2017-18 to 46.1% last year.

The report also shows asking friends or acquaintances has been the most popular way for landing a job in the last Iranian year that ended March 20, 2019, with a 33.9% share.

Registering at non-governmental employment agencies with 21%, taking out or reading classified newspaper ads with 16.7% and contacting an employer with 16.1% were other methods tried by job hunters last year.

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 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).