Trend Persian Desk Head Dalga Khatinoglu
Iranian labor minister Ali Reza Sheykholeslami said that roughly $100 million were allocated in 2011 within the program of creating the working conditions at home, namely, working and earning money at home instead of working in the office.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced about creating about 1.600.000 new jobs in the country for the last year (the New Year starts in Iran on March 21). He also promised to create 2.5 million new jobs this year.
At present, roughly 75 million people live in Iran. The youth represents the most part of the population. According to the statistics, roughly 900,000 young people are able to work per year, that is, minimum 900,000 new jobs must be created to provide these people with jobs.
According to the statistics, the unemployment rate hits 14.5 percent in the country. This statistics includes people working an hour per week, students, housewives and soldiers as those provided with jobs. According the unofficial statistics, the unemployment rate hits 25-30 percent.
According to the Iranian Development Plan, the country's annual economic growth should hit 8 percent in order to create one million new jobs.
Ahmadinejad's government has refused to publicize the statistics on economic growth for several years and international sources, including the International Monetary Fund announced Iran's GDP growth at 1.1 percent for 2009 and 1.6 percent for 2010. In other word, Iran's economic growth has constituted 1.5-2 percent for last two years. It is unknown how 1.600.000 new jobs have been created at a 2-percent economic growth.
During Former President Mohammad Khatemi's time 600,000 new jobs were created at a 5-percent average annual growth.
Ahmadinejad has implemented several projects to eliminate unemployment problem in the country subjected to international economic sanctions. He also made the banks to allocate loans worth $28 billion to entrepreneurs. The plan "Creating early profitable jobs", which lasted from 2005 to 2009, has not yielded its fruit. Unemployment rate constantly increased in the country during three years. According to official statistics, unemployment rate hit 11.1 percent in 2008, 14.1 percent in 2009 and 14.6 percent in late 2010 - early 2011.
Some citizens could not repay the loans to the banks. According to last statistics, at present the banks cannot get back loans worth $48 billion issued to the population. As the Iranian "Bank and Loan" news agency reported a week earlier, at present more than seven million people cannot repay the loans issued by banks.
In fact, the plan "Creating early profitable jobs" has not provided unemployed peoples with jobs, moreover, they became indebted to the banks.
Some 900,000 jobs were created within the plan "Creating early profitable jobs" in 2005-2009.
At present, no details of Sheykholeslami's plan to create working conditions at home are reported. It raises a question how the new plan worth $100 million will address unemployment problem, when the plan "Creating early profitable jobs" worth $28 billion could not solve it.