Azerbaijan, Baku, July 22/Trend, corr. D.Khatinoglu/
Some Iranian members of parliament criticize hardly Labour Minister Abdol-Reza Sheykholeslami over increasingly unemployment and labors' problems in the country, Mehr News Agency reported.
Iranian MPs during a meeting with presence of Sheykholeslami ctirisized him because of a couple of issues, including unemployment rate, doubtable statistics, lacking investment and high-rate loans, law economic growth etc.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Government says about 1.6 million new jobs has been created during last solar year (started on March 19), while it promised create 2 million additional new jobs during current solar year.
Abdol-Reza Azizi head of the Social Commission of parliament said during meeting that the government has promised to create 4 million new jobs during last and current years, but despite the announcements about progresses, unemployment increasingly is rising in Iran.
Iranian government claims that the unemployment rate in Iran was about 12.5 percent in last solar year, indicates 1 percent drop compared to the previous year.
With surveying Iran's unemployment in past, for instance during Mohammad Khatami's presidency term, Iran could create only 600,000 new jobs in a year with 6 percent economic growth averagely.
Another MP, Mehdi Sanaee said that according the all of international statistics, Iran's economic growth during past four years was very law, and then creation of allegedly 4 million new jobs during last two years is not believable.
According the International Monetary Fund statistics, Iran's GDP growth in 2011 was about 1 percent and it's expected to fall 0.4 percent in 2012. The Fund estimated unemployment rate in Iran will increase to 16 percent in current year.
A member of parliament Nader Ghazipoor with mentionning the industry sector's financial problems said that banks is paying loans to industry sector with 26 percent interest rate and this rate in very high for industry sector which is suffered from economic crisis.
Hosseinali Haji, another MP urged that about 80 percent of people's appeals to members of parliament are related with unemployment, then how can the government claim job creation increase in the country?
Meanwhile, a report issued earlier this summer by the Statistical Centre of Iran painted a grimmer unemployment picture than the one provided by Mr. Sheikholeslami.
That report said the unemployment rate among young, university educated Iranians between the ages of 15 to 29, ranges between 20 to 46 per cent. According to the data issued by the Statistical Centre of Iran, while the unemployment rate among young Iranians, those aged 15 to 24, has gone from 23.8 per cent in the spring of 2005 to 25.7 per cent in the spring of 2011, things are even worse for women. At the start of the Iranian year in 2005 (Iran's solar year starts on March 20), the unemployment rate for women stood at 30 per cent. That rate grew to 45 per cent in 2011.
Unofficial figures estimate Iran's overall unemployment rate to be between 20 to 40 percent.