Mohsen Jalalpour claimed that there are more than five million unemployed people in Iran. Knowing that 150 people are added to the unemployed population every hour multiplies this concern a hundred times, he said. Accordingly, every year 1,314,000 people are added to the unemployed population.
This is while on March 7, 2016, Ebrahim Razzaqi, an economic expert, told Iranian state television: “Currently there are close to 15 million unemployed people in Iran.”
The state-run Alef website quoted the president of the Statistical Center of Iran as saying that the rate of unemployment of university graduates is one million that means 18.5% of graduates are unemployed. Adel Azar, head of the Statistical Center of Iran said that unemployment of youths between the ages of 15 and 29 stands at 23.3%.
Shahriar Kia, a spokesman for Iran’s exiled opposition in Camp Liberty, Iraq, wrote in the American Thinker website on March 26 that: “Due to economic recession, Iran’s industry is entirely in ruins, especially small and medium-size units. A government minister sounded the alarm by revealing that 14,000 productions units have been closed down in towns across the country, one after another reaching the point of complete bankruptcy. Demand running extremely low, depleting warehouses, and returned checks provide a dim picture of how ordinary people are facing dead-ends”.
He added that: “Is there anything left intact in Iran’s economy? The above-mentioned facts are merely a tip of the iceberg of the devastation inflicted on what is left of Iran’s economy. Employment and unemployment in Iran is best described by a regime official saying, ‘We have around 60 million people aged from 15 to 65, of which only 22 million are employed. (Economic participation rates) amongst women is 16 to 18%, and 65% amongst the men, and we have an entire army of unemployed college students. A large portion of the 4 million college students prefer to find a job [involving their studies], and since there are no jobs available they decide to continue their education. However, a bachelor’s degree or a master’s will render no difference in their job status these days, as there are no jobs to go around and these college students are merely filling their time.”
