Iran Gov’t Plans to Generate 1 Million Jobs Next Year

EghtesadOnline: One of the main objectives of the government in the next Iranian year (starting March 20, 2020) is to boost domestic production and employment.

News ID: ۷۴۹۱۷۵

14 December 2019

As one of the appendixes to the newly unveiled budget bill suggests, the Iranian government is planning to create close to one million jobs by shoring up main sectors driving economic growth.

The government will focus on investment in reviving neighborhoods struggling with urban decay, agriculture, tourism, knowledge-based companies, industry and mining, culture and arts, inter-city rail transport and improving labor policies to create jobs.

To finance job-creation projects in these eight fields, 535.48 trillion rials ($4 billion) will be allocated from three main sources, namely bank resources, the country's sovereign wealth fund, i.e. the National Development Fund of Iran and the government’s general budget, Financial Tribune reported.

Banks will provide more than 277 trillion rials ($2 billion) of the total sum, NDFI 184 trillion rials ($1.39 billion) and the government’s general budget 73 trillion rials ($55 million), according to a report by the Persian-language daily Iran.

Out of 992,000 jobs the government aims to create next year, close to 120,000 will be generated via reconstruction of urban slums. The total budget projected for the so-called “Urban Revival National Plan” is at 20 trillion rials (151.51 million), about half of which will come from the government’s general budget and will be spent on joint projects as 10 trillion rials ($75.75 million) will be invested through bank loans.

The government will allot 40 trillion rials ($303 million) from banks’ resources, the same volume from the National Development Fund of Iran, and 10 trillion rials ($75.75 million) from the general budget to improve production and job creation in the agriculture sector.

About 122,000 jobs have been projected to be added to the economy by carrying out 5,339 projects in the tourism and handicraft sectors. Next year, the sector will receive 2,000 billion ($15.15 million) rials from banks resources and 2,000 billion rials ($15.15 million) from NDFI.

Knowledge-based companies are expected to create 64,000 jobs for university graduates next year. The overall budget earmarked for this sector is 4,000 billion rials ($3.30 million), of which 2,000 billion rials ($15.15 million) will come from banks’ resources and the rest will come from NDFI.

A total of 40 trillion rials ($303 million) from bank resources, the same volume from NDFI and 10 trillion rials ($75.75 million) from the government’s general budget will be earmarked to businesses in the industrial and mining sectors to help create 270,000 jobs next year.

To generate 13,000 art-related jobs next year, the government has planned to allocate more than 20 trillion rials ($151.51).

Inter-city rail transport will create about 5,000 job opportunities next year; 3,000 of these jobs will be added through sectors related to rail manufacturing. An estimated 19 trillion rials will be invested from bank resources and the general budget to create jobs in this sector.

The government plans to create 338,000 jobs next year by investing 7,520 billion rials ($143.93 million) in projects related to the labor market, including the so-called “university students internship plan”, “on-the-job training”, “funding for home-based businesses” and “support for troubled enterprises”.

Q2 Unemployment Drops 1.8% to 10.5%

Iran’s unemployment rate, the proportion of jobless population of ages 15 years and above, stood at 10.5% in the second quarter of the current Iranian year (June 22-Sept. 22), indicating a 1.8% decrease compared with the same period of last year.

A total of 2,894,298 Iranians were unemployed in Q2, according to the latest report by the Statistical Center of Iran.

Men’s unemployment stood at 8.6% while for women the rate hovered around 18.2%.

Over 1.9 million men and 986,318 women of ages 15 and above were jobless in summer.

The unemployment rate was 11.8% for urban areas (2.42 million people) and 6.6% for rural areas (466,012 people).

SCI provides two figures for the youth unemployment rate: the proportion of the population between the ages of 15 and 24 and those between the ages of 18 and 35.

The youth unemployment rate for those between 15 and 24 stood at 26.1% in Q2, posting a 1.1% decrease while the unemployment rate of those between 18 and 35 years, stood at 17.9%, posting a decline of 2% YOY.

Unemployment rate for university graduates stood at 17.2% in Q2, posting a 1.7% decrease YOY. Higher education unemployment rate for men stood at 13.7% and that of women stuck around 27.1%.

The share of higher education unemployment from the total rate of unemployment was measured to be 43.8% in Q2, which indicates an increase of 4.3% YOY. The unemployment shares of male and female graduates from the total rate of unemployment stood at 27.8% and 67.6%, respectively while the share of higher education unemployment from the total unemployment were 46.8% in urban areas and 28.1% in rural areas during the period under review.

The services sector employed 49.1% of the Iranian employed population (12.14 million), 0.4% less than the corresponding period of last year, whereas industrial and agricultural sectors provided 32% and 19% of the employed population with jobs respectively.

Over 7.91 million were employed in the industrial sector, indicating an increase of 0.5% compared with the year before and 4.69 million worked in agriculture, posting a 0.1% growth YOY.

The services sector employed 9.85 million men and 2.28 million women in the second quarter, of which 6.77 million men and 1.13 million women worked in the industrial sector while3.69 million men and 995,672 women worked in the agriculture sector.

Services sector accounted for 58.7% or 10.61 million of all jobs in urban areas and 22.9% or 1.52 million of the jobs in rural areas. The industrial sector made up 34.3% or 6.21 million of the jobs in urban areas and 25.6% or 1.69 million of the employment in rural areas whereas 7% or 1.27 million of the total jobs in urban areas and 51.5% or 3.42 million of the jobs in rural areas were in the agriculture sector.

Unemployment rate in the last Iranian year (March 2018-19) stood at 12%, indicating a 0.1% rise compared with the year before (March 2017-18).