Labor Force Participation Rate at 44% in Fiscal 2019-20

EghtesadOnline: Labor force participation rate—the proportion of the population of ages 15 and above that is economically active either employed or looking for a job—stood at 44.1% in the last Iranian year (March 2019-20), registering a 0.4% decrease year-on-year.

News ID: ۷۵۰۰۱۴

11 May 2020

Iran’s unemployment rate, the proportion of jobless population of ages 15 and above, stood at 10.7%, indicating a 1.5% year-on-year decline, the latest report by the Statistical Center of Iran shows.

Last year’s total employed population was at 24.27 million, nearly 430,000 more than the year before.

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.

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

The youth unemployment rate of those between 15 and 24 years stood at 26%, posting a 1.7% decrease while the unemployment rate of those between 18 and 35 years stood at 17.9%, posting a decline of 1.7% YOY.

Unemployment Filing Amid Coronavirus

A total of 783,000 people have filed for unemployment since March 13, of whom 654,000 were found eligible for benefits, Masoud Babaie, an official with the Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare, said last week.

“The total number of individuals receiving unemployment benefits last year was 260,000,” he was quoted as saying by Mehr News Agency.

Hojjat Mirzaie, an official with the Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare, said earlier that most of those who have filed for unemployment were employed in the services sector.

Ali Rabiei, the government spokesman, has said the economy could lose up to four million jobs as a result of the new coronavirus.

“More than 12 million workers are employed in the services sector. The early impacts of unemployment can be seen in 10 business groups that were closed as soon as the virus was confirmed. Close to 3.3 million of the employed population in the official economy are directly affected by the crisis,” he was quoted as saying by the Persian-language daily Etemad.

Of the people who have filed for unemployment insurance, 149,000 hail from Tehran Province, according to Anushiravan Mohseni-Bandpay, the provincial governor of Tehran.

In early April, Babaie said the government would allocate 50,000 billion rials ($306 million) to Unemployment Insurance Fund to support those who have lost their jobs amid the coronavirus outbreak.

“To prevent the spread of the virus, applicants are urged to fill out online forms for unemployment benefits at the newly-designed website 'bimebikari.mcls.gov.ir' within 30 days, instead of visiting the ministry’s bureaus," he added.

“As per the joint guideline signed by the Cooperatives Ministry and the Social Security Organization on March 30, workers of 10 job groups and economic subsectors that have been hit by coronavirus outbreak and are subject to the provisions of the Islamic Republic of Iran Labor Law, the Social Security Act and the Unemployment Insurance Law will qualify for unemployment benefits for three months,” he was quoted as saying by IRNA.

Babaie noted that other insurers, such as those who have granted insurance coverage to the self-employed, construction workers and carpet weavers, were not eligible for unemployment benefits.