Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb.17 / Trend F.Mehdi/
The Cooperatives Development Bank of Iran has created 25,000 job opportunities in the country in the first ten months of the current Iranian calendar year, which began on March 20, 2012, ISNA quoted the managing director of the bank Mashallah Azimi, as saying.
He added that 9 trillion rials (about $734 million) has been paid in loans to the cooperative sector since the beginning of the current year, compared to 7.35 trillion rials in the previous year.
Iran's unemployment rate in autumn 2012 hit 11.2 percent, down 0.6 percent compared to the figure in autumn last year, IRNA reported, citing the Statistical Center of Iran.
The jobless rate was 11.1 percent in spring, according to the report.
Some 1 million new jobs have been created in the first half of the current Iranian calendar year, which began on March 20, 2012.
During the previous year, the nation's working population was 25 million, the report added.
According to Etemad Persian language daily, the administration had pledged to create 2.5 million jobs in the current (calendar) year.
Persons aged 20-24 years are the most unemployed group in Iran with the unemployment rate of 29.8 percent.