Hamedan with 15.3% had the highest rate followed by Kermanshah with 13.2%, Lorestan with 12.8%, West Azarbaijan with 12.1%, Ardabil with 12%, Khuzestan and Isfahan with 11.4% each, Kerman with 11.3%, Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari and Kurdestan with 10.9% each and Yazd with 10.5%, the Statistical Center of Iran reported.
The overall unemployment, the proportion of the jobless population of ages 15 and above, stood at 8.9% in Q3, indicating a 0.5% decline compared with the same period of last year.
A total of 2.3 million Iranians were unemployed in Q3. Men’s unemployment stood at 7.6% while the rate for women hovered around 15.7%.
Over 1.6 million men and 653,168 women of ages 15 and above were jobless in Q3.
The unemployment rate was 9.6% for urban areas (1.87 million people) and 6.8% for rural areas (425,122 people).
The unemployment rate for university graduates stood at 13.8% in Q3, posting a 0.5% year-on-year decrease. Higher education unemployment rate for men stood at 10.3% and that of women stuck around 22.6%.
The share of higher education unemployment from the total unemployed population was 42.3% in Q3, which indicate an increase of 2.1% year-on-year.
The unemployment shares of male and female graduates from the total unemployed population stood at 22.2% and 46.5%, respectively, while the share of higher education unemployment from the total unemployed population was 46.1% in urban areas and 25.5% in rural areas during the period.
Khorasan Razavi Province filed the lowest unemployment rate of 5.3% among all Iranian provinces in Q3.
Tehran Province, wherein lies the capital city, registered a 7.9% unemployment rate.
SCI put Q3 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 — at 40.9% or 2.58 million people, registering a 0.5% decrease year-on-year.
Men’s and women’s economic participation rates were 68.7% and 13.1% respectively in the same period.
A total of 21.69 million men and 4.14 million women of ages 15 and above were economically active in Q3, i.e., they were either employed or looking for a job.
Ardabil had the highest labor force participation rate with 46.9% and Ilam had the lowest with 34%.
Tehran registered a 41.5% participation rate in Q3.
The Q3 employment rate was put at 37.3% (23.4 million), down 0.2% compared with the same quarter of the last Iranian year.
Employment rates for men and women were 63.5% and 11.1%, respectively, which constituted 20 million men and 3.5 million women in Q3. The rate was 36.5% (17.72 million people) in urban areas and 40% (5.81 million) in rural areas.
The share of employment of university graduates stood at 25.8% of the total employed population, wherein male and female graduate employment rates were 22.2% and 46.5%, respectively. In urban and rural areas, graduate employment rates stood at 31.5% and 8.7% of the total number 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.
Ardabil and North Khorasan each registered the highest employment rate of 41.3% while Sistan-Baluchestan filed the lowest of 31.6% among all Iranian provinces.
Tehran’s employment rate stood at 38.2%.
Q3 statistics show that 37.4% of the country’s labor force worked more than 49 hours per week, indicating a 0.5% increase over the same period of last year.