Reviewing Iran's Q1 Unemployment by Age Group

EghtesadOnline: The overall unemployment rate in Iran, the proportion of total jobless population of ages 10 years and above, stood at 10.8% in the first quarter of the current Iranian year (March 21-June 21), indicating a 1.3% decrease year-on-year, according to the latest report of the Statistical Center of Iran.

News ID: ۷۴۸۵۶۲

29 September 2019

Citing the SCI data, the Persian economic daily Donya-e-Eqtesad has surveyed the Q1 unemployment rates in different age groups.

A total of 2,956,687 Iranians were unemployed in Q1. Men’s unemployment stood at 9.2% while the rate for women hovered around 17.3%.

Over 2.02 million men and 932,881 women of ages 10 and above were jobless in spring, according to Financial Tribune.

The unemployment rate was 12% for urban areas (2.44 million people) and 7.3% for rural areas (512,881 people).

The highest unemployment rate in the first quarter was registered at 27.9% for those between 20 and 24 years, while the lowest rate was recorded for those above 65 years with 1.9%.

The economic participation rate of people ages 20-24 stood at 42.2% while that of people above 65 was 12.5%.

The unemployment rate posted for people ages 20-24 stood at 30.1% in the Q1 of last year (March 21-June 21, 2018), which was considerably higher than the current year’s rate.

Last year’s Q1 unemployment rate of people above 65 years was at 1.4%.

SCI put the Q1 labor force participation rate—the proportion of the population of ages 10 and above that were economically active either employed or looking for job—at 40.6% or 27.33 million people, registering a 0.5% decline year-on-year.

Men’s and women’s economic participation rates were 65% and 16.1% respectively in the same period. SCI reports that 21.94 million men and 5.39 million women ages 10 and above were economically active in Q1, that is they were either employed or looking for job.

Those in the 35-39 age group registered the highest participation rate with 59.1% in Q1 whereas in the first quarter of the last fiscal year those between 40 and 44 years had the highest participation rate with 60%.

Men’s and women’s economic participation rates were at 65% and 16.1% respectively. According to SCI, 21.94 million men and 5.39 million women ages 10 and above were economically active in Q1, that is they were either employed or looking for a job.

The economic participation rate of women in rural areas was higher than those in urban areas (18.1% compared with 15.4%). The economic participation rate of men living in rural areas was 4.8% higher than those in urban areas.

Underemployment in Provinces

Underemployment, the condition in which people in a labor force are employed at less than full-time (44 hours in Iran) or regular jobs or jobs not conforming to their training or economic needs, is an important indicator that determines the health of the economy.

Iran's underemployment rate stood at 10% in Q1 of the current fiscal year, indicating a 0.2% year-on-year decrease and it was higher for men and those living in rural areas.

The Q1 underemployment rate for men and women stood at 10.9% and 6.1%, respectively, while the underemployment rate was 9% in urban areas and 12.7% in rural areas.

The report also shows Lorestan Province registered the highest underemployment rate with 21.1% during the period under review compared with 15.7% of the same quarter of last year. It was followed by North Khorasan (17.7%) and Kohgilouyeh-Boyerahmad (17%).

Tehran Province posted the lowest underemployment rate with 4.7%, indicating a 0.9 percentage point decrease YOY. Yazd (4.9%) and Zanjan (5.4%) had the lowest underemployment rates after Tehran.

Q1 statistics show that 39.3% of the labor force worked more than 49 hours of service per week against 40.1% year-on-year.

Ardabil, Alborz and Hamedan topped the list of provinces whose employed labor force worked more than 49 hours per week with 54.2%, 51.4% and 48.9% respectively.

At the other end of the spectrum, South Khorasan, Lorestan and Sistan-Baluchestan had the smallest share of labor force who worked more than 49 hours per week with 19.3%, 22.2% and 22.4% respectively.

Public/Private Sector Employment

Another finding of the Donya-e-Eqtesad report is that the share of private sector employment in Q1 increased by 0.5% to reach 84.8% in the current year over last year’s similar quarter. A total of 15.2% were employed by the public sector in Q1.

The share of private and public sectors in employment were different in urban and rural areas. About 81.3% of employed population in urban areas were employed by the private sector and the rest by the public sector. The percentage of employed people by the private sector in rural areas was higher than those in urban areas: 94.6% of employed people in rural areas were employed by the private sector compared with 5.4% employment of the public sector.