Iran has reported a slight fall in its unemployment rate in the quarter to late September as services, manufacturing and agriculture sectors keep performing well in the Iranian labor market.
Figures released by the Statistical Center of Iran (SCI) on Saturday showed that jobless rate in the country had reached 7.5% in the three months to September 21, down 0.4% compared to the same quarter last year.
Iran’s jobless rate had dropped 0.5% year on year in the June quarter to reach 7.7%, according to SCI figures.
The government statistics agency said a total of 25.129 million people from Iran’s population of above 15-year-olds were employed in the September quarter, up 444,000 from the same quarter in 2023.
It said that some 38.066 million in the working age (16-64 years) were economically inactive in the three months to late September, up 411,000 from the same previous period,
SCI figures showed the job market participation rate, which measures the percentage of people who are in the labor force, was 41.7% in the September quarter, up 0.1% from the same period in 2023.
They showed that unemployment rate for 16-24 year-olds in Iran was 19.4% in the three months to late September, down 0.7% from the same period last year, while some 14.8% of 18-35 year-olds were jobless in the same quarter, a decline of 0.2% from last year figures.
The SCI said that the services sector was responsible for the bulk of jobs in Iran’s economy in the September quarter with 52.1%, followed by manufacturing at 33.3% and agriculture at 14.5%.
Iran has introduced plans in recent years to diversify its economy away from oil revenues amid sanctions imposed by the US on the country’s energy sector.
That has allowed a major expansion in manufacturing, mining and agricultural activities in Iran, leading to more jobs for the country’s youth.
