Most Iranian Employed in Manufacturing Sector

EghtesadOnline: Over 4.49 million people were employed in manufacturing enterprises, accounting for 18.9% of the total employed population—the biggest share among nine job groups defined by the Statistical Center of Iran.

News ID: ۷۴۸۷۳۰

15 October 2019

The data were culled from SCI's data on the country's labor force by Mehr News Agency, detailing the share of job categories from the employment market in the last Iranian year (March 2018-19).

These were followed by 3.67 million people or 15.4% of jobholders classified as “service providers and salespeople”.

The number of skilled workers in “farming, forestry and fishing” jobs stood at 3.31 million, accounting for 14% of overall employed population, according to Financial Tribune.

That of “unskilled workers” was at 3.21 million, constituting 13.5% of the overall employed population.

More than 3 million were employed as “operators and assemblers of industrial machinery and drivers there of”, accounting for 12.7% of the total employed population.

About 2.6 million people or 11% of employed people worked as “specialists” and 1.03 million people or 5.6% as “technicians and assistants”.

The number of “office administrators” stood at 884,839, numbering 3.7% of the total number of employed population.

A total of 759,500 people or 3.1% of all jobs were held by “lawmakers, dignitaries and executives”—the smallest of all nine groups.

Employment Rate at 35.6%

The total employment rate of last year was 35.6% (23.81 million). Men and women employment rates were 58.1% and 13%, respectively, as 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 respectively.

Employment is defined as persons of working age engaged in any activity to produce goods or provide services for pay or profit, whether at work during the reference period or not at work due to a temporary absence from a job, or to working-time arrangement.

Based on the broad classification as per the sectors of services, industries and agriculture, services employed 50.3% of the Iranian employed population (11.96 million), 0.1% more than the year before, whereas industrial and agricultural sectors constituted 32% and 17.7% of the total jobs respectively.

Over 7.62 million were employed in the industrial sector, indicating a decrease of 0.3% compared with the year before and 4.21 million worked in agriculture, posting a 0.2% growth year-on-year.

The services sector employed 9.64 million men and 2.31 million women last year, the industrial sector comprised 6.45 million men and 1.16 million women and the agriculture sector accounted for 3.35 million men and 856,102 women last year.

Services sector accounted for 59.9% or 10.4 million of all jobs in urban areas and 24.3% or 1.56 million of the jobs in rural areas. The industrial sector made up 34% or 5.9 million of urban jobs and 26.6% or 1.71 million of rural jobs, such that 6.1% or 1.05 million of the total jobs in urban areas and 49.1% or 3.15 million of the total jobs in rural areas were in agriculture sector.

SCI 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 40.5% 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 of ages 10 and above were economically active last year, that is they were either employed or looking for 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.

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).

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

Underemployment, the condition in which people in a labor force are employed for less than 44 hours per week, stood at 10.8% and was higher among men compared to women and among those living in rural areas.

The underemployment rate of men and women stood at 12% and 5.8%, respectively, while underemployment was 9.4% in urban areas and 14.6% in rural areas last year.

About 38.3% of the country’s job holders worked 49 hours or more per week, registering a decline of 0.7% YOY.

The share of higher education from the total rate of unemployment was measured at 38.5% last year, which indicates an increase of 1.4% YOY.

The unemployment rates of male and female graduates stood at 26.1% and 65.9%, respectively while higher education unemployment rates were 41.4% in urban areas and 23.9% in rural areas during the period under review.