Tehran, Iran, Sept. 7
By Milad Fashtami - Trend:
Currently, over 2.5 million people are unemployed in Iran and at least 1.2 million of them are college graduates, Iran's Mehr News Agency reported on September 7.
Some five million people will also join the unemployed club in the next seven years, bringing the total number of potential jobless people to 7.5 million, according to Deputy Minister of Cooperative, Labor and Welfare Ali Rabi'ee.
Based on international standards, the country is currently struggling with a crisis in regards to the unemployment rate of the youth (under the age of 30). Rabi'ee, however, said that currently 22 million people are employed in Iran, promising that the figure will reach 35 million in seven years.
"Currently, there are two million job opportunities in the country that no one is willing to take," he said, explaining that the college graduates' unwillingness to do certain jobs has given the opportunity to foreign immigrants to take the jobs.
The country's unemployment rate in previous winter stood at 10.5 percent, according to the Statistical Center of Iran. The unemployment rate in the mentioned three-month period,
which ended on March 20, was 1.8 percent less than the same period of time its preceding year, Iran's IRIB News Agency reported on June 24.
The country's urban and rural unemployment rate in the mentioned period stood at 11.3 and 8.7 percent, respectively. Unemployment among men and women were also around 9.1 and
18.9 percent, respectively.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said in December that job creation is the most significant issue in the future of the country's economy, while the combination of inflation and
stagnation is now the most important problem.
"Tackling high inflation and unemployment are top priorities of the government," Rouhani said before presenting the Iranian parliament (Majlis) his government's first budget plan.
Around 20.3 percent of the youth between the age of 15 to 29 were jobless in Iran in the mentioned three-month period.