Q3 Underemployment at 10.6%

EghtesadOnline: Underemployment, the condition in which people in a labor force are employed for less than 44 hours of service per week, stood at 10.6% in the third quarter of the current Iranian year (Sept. 23-Dec. 21, 2019), down 1.1% year-on-year and was higher for men and those living in rural areas.

News ID: ۷۸۵۲۵۸

14 January 2020

The third quarter’s underemployment rate for men and women stood at 11.5% and 6.2%, respectively, according to Financial Tribune.

The rate of urban areas was 9.3% and it was 13.9% in rural areas, the Statistical Center of Iran's latest report on Iran's labor market shows.

The total employment rate in Q3 was 39.6% (24.44 million), up 0.4% compared with the same quarter of last year. Men and women employment rates were 64.7% and 14.5%, respectively; 19.97 million men and 4.46 million women were employed in Q3.

The employment rate was 38.1% or 17.93 million in urban areas and 44.4% or 6.51 million in rural areas.

The share of employment of university graduates stood at 24.4% of the total employed population, male and female graduate employment was 21.3% and 38.2%, respectively. Graduate employment rates in urban and rural areas stood at 30.4% and 7.8% of the total population of job-holders.

Q3 statistics show that 36.5% of the country’s labor force worked more than 49 hours of service per week, indicating no change over the same period of last year.

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.

Iran’s unemployment rate, the proportion of jobless population of ages 15 years and above, stood at 10.6% in the third quarter of the current Iranian year, indicating a 1.2% decrease compared with the same period of last year.

A total of 2,892,726 Iranians were unemployed in Q3, the latest report by the Statistical Center of Iran shows.

Men’s unemployment stood at 8.9% while for women the rate hovered around 17.3%. Over 1.95 million men and 936,002 women of ages 15 and above were jobless in Q3.

The unemployment rate was 11.8% for urban areas (2.39 million people) and 7.1% for rural areas (494,277 people).

The services sector employed 50% of the Iranian employed population (12.22 million), 0.1% more than the corresponding period of last year, whereas industrial and agricultural sectors provided 32.9% and 17.1% of the employed population with jobs respectively.

Over 8.03 million were employed in the industrial sector, indicating an increase of 0.1% compared with the year before and 4.19 million worked in agriculture, posting a 0.1% decline YOY.

The services sector consists of wholesale and retail trade; restaurants and hotels; transport, storage and communications; financing, insurance, real estate and business services; as well as community, social, education, health and personal services.

The services sector employed 9.95 million men and 2.26 million women in the three-month period; over 6.67 million men and 1.35 million women were working in the industrial sector and 3.35 million men and 839,773 women worked in the agriculture sector in Q3.

Services sector accounted for 59.4% or 10.65 million of all jobs in urban areas and 24.1% or 1.57 million of the jobs in rural areas.

The industrial sector comprised 34.4% or 6.16 million of the jobs in urban areas and 28.6% or 1.86 million of the employment in rural areas.\

About 6.2% or 1.11 million of the total jobs in urban areas and 47.2% or 3.07 million of the jobs in rural areas were in the agriculture sector.