A Review of Women's Role in Iran's Labor Market 2011-2018

EghtesadOnline: The population of unemployed women increased from 830,996 in the fiscal 2011-12 to 1,037,516 in 2017-18, registering an annual growth of 3.8%.

News ID: ۷۸۴۱۹۱

15 October 2018

According to the latest data published in a report by the Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare, the total number of unemployed increased from 2,877,608 to 3,210,206 in the same period to resister an annual growth of 1.8%.

Except for the fiscal 2014-15, women’s share in unemployed population has seen an upward trend over these years; the lowest rate was registered in the fiscal 2010-11 with 28.9% while the highest rate was posted in 2017-18 with 32.3%.

The economically active population of the country increased from 23,387,633 to 26,588,819, with an average annual growth of 2.2%. Likewise, the economically active female population was on the rise over these years, except for the years 2013-14 and 2014-15, Financial Tribune reported.

There were 5,232,661 economically active women in 2017-18 compared with 3,968,916 economically active women in 2011-12, indicating an average annual growth of 4.7%.

Women’s share from the economically active population has ranged from 16.2% in 2014-15 to 19.7% in 2017-18.

The report also shows women accounted for one-third of unemployed population in at least 30% of provinces. At times, women constituted more than half of the unemployed population of the province, including Golestan Province in 2011-12, Mazandaran Province in 2013-14 and Kerman Province in 2016-18.

In the fiscal 2011-12, women’s share from the jobless population was more than the country’s average, i.e. 28.09% in 13 provinces, the lowest and highest share of women from unemployed population was recorded for Sistan-Baluchestan with 9.3% and Golestan with 52.7%.

In 2012-13, women’s share from the unemployed population was more than the country’s average, i.e. 29.6% in 15 provinces, with the lowest and highest share of women from unemployed population recorded for Sistan-Baluchestan with 16.8% and Golestan with 48.9%.

In 2013-14, women’s share from jobless population was more than the country’s average, i.e. 31.1% in 15 provinces, with the lowest and highest share of women from the unemployed population recorded for Hamedan with 9.8% and Mazandaran with 51%.

In 2014-15, women’s share from the jobless population was more than the country’s average, i.e. 30.2% in 10 provinces, with the lowest and highest share of women from the unemployed population recorded for Qom with 18.6% and Mazandaran with 46.7%.

In 2015-16, women’s share from the jobless population was more than the country’s average, i.e. 30.6% in 12 provinces, the lowest and highest share of women from unemployed population was registered for West Azarbaijan with 14.2% and Mazandaran with 44.4%.

In 2016-17, women’s share from the jobless population was more than country’s average, i.e. 31.5% in 13 provinces, with the lowest and highest share of women from unemployed population posted for West Azarbaijan with 13.5% and Kerman with 50.4%.

In 2017-18, women’s share from the jobless population was more than country’s average, i.e. 32.3% in 14 provinces, with the lowest and highest share of women from the unemployed population recorded for Hamedan with 20.4% and Kerman with 50.7%.

According to the latest report by the Statistical Center of Iran, Iran’s unemployment rate in the first quarter of the current Iranian (March 21-June 21) stood at 12.1%, registering a 0.5% drop compared with the same period of last year.

A total of 3.32 million Iranian workforce were unemployed in spring.

The unemployment rate was 13.6% for urban areas (2.75 million people) and 7.9% for rural areas (568,631 people).

SCI has put Q1 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 41.1% or 27.38 million people, registering a 0.5% rise year-on-year.

Women unemployment rate stood at 19.2% while men joblessness hovered around 10.3%, as over 2.25 million men and 1.07 million women of ages 10 and above were jobless in the first quarter.

Men’s and women’s economic participation rates were 65.3% and 16.8% respectively in Q1.

According to SCI, 21.82 million men and 5.56 million women of ages 10 and above were economically active in the first three months of the current year, that is they were either employed or looking for work.

The services sector employed 9.69 million men and 2.35 million women in spring; over 6.36 million men and 1.15 million women were working in the industrial sector and 3.5 million of men and 984,248 women worked in the agriculture sector in Q1.