Azerbaijan , Baku, March 31 / Trend, A.Yusifzade /
According to the statistics, Iran has an estimate of 25 million active population and the number of unemployed totaled about 2.5 million people, Mehr news agency reported quoting Iran's Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Abdolreza Sheikholeslami as saying.
Up to 1.6 million people enter the labor market each year in Iran, Sheikholeslami added.
Iran would reduce its unemployment rate to seven percent by the end of 2012 in line with the Fifth Socio-Economic Development Plan (2010-2015), Sheikholeslami said earlier.
"Some 1.5 million new jobs have been created," Sheikholeslami said without elaborating on specific details.
The government has reached its objective of creating new jobs, Sheikholeslami noted.
Iran 's Fifth Five-Year Economic Development Plan is part of the 20-Year Outlook Plan (2005-2025), which is the country's main blueprint for long-term sustainable growth.
The fifth five-year plan has stipulated for the reduction of unemployment rate to seven percent in 2015 through creating an average of 990,000 jobs annually.