Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct. 25/ Trend, R. Zamanov
Iran's unemployment has turned into a crisis, the head of Statistical Centre of Iran said on Friday.
"The country's youth unemployment rate is currently around 26 per cent," the Mehr News Agency quoted Adel Azar as saying.
"The country's total unemployment rate is also 12.2 per cent," he added.
"Once a country's youth unemployment doubles the total unemployment rate, the country has entered into an unemployment crisis," Azar explained.
It was announced on October 23 that the administration of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has canceled an employment plan enacted by former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Mehr News Agency reported.
The plan, dubbed as Mehr Afarain, aimed to employ 500,000 persons in government organizations.
Over 542,000 job opportunities were created in Iran during the past eight years, IRNA reported citing Statistical Centre of Iran (SCI).
According to the SCI report, Iran's unemployment rate stood at 12.2 percent in the previous calendar year (which ended March 20), the IRNA News Agency reported.
The country's unemployment rate was 11.5 percent in the Iranian calendar year of 1384 (which ended March 20, 2005).
During the past eight years some 33,622 people have become unemployed.
A member of Iran's high council of employment Davoud Qaderi said earlier this month that the unemployment rate in the country is projected to be falling by one percent each year during 2013-2015.
Qaderi also said that the council had developed a package of investment plans, worth 1.96 trillion rials (some $160 billion), aimed to create 1.1 million new jobs in the current Iranian calendar year, which began on March 21.
The unemployment rate in Iran stood at 12.2 percent last year, showing a 1.2 percent fall compared to its preceding year, the statistical center of Iran reported.
Some 400,000 people found work in Iran last year, which ended on March 19. The government announced over 1.6 million job opportunities were created last year, the Mehr News Agency reported on June 12.
