Iran needs to create 8 million jobs in near future: Finance Minister

Iran's minister of finance and economic affairs says that the administration of President Hassan Rouhani has made the task of creating jobs one of the core pillars of its new economic policy package. In recent remarks, Ali Tayyebnia said that one of the main policies of the government of prudence and hope is to create jobs. He also added that 8 million jobs need to be created in the near future.

Despite containing the country's inflation rate and improvements in the overall economic recovery of the country, the government needs to create jobs for at least 8 million job seekers.

Youth unemployment in particular has been a major concern for the Iranian nation. Previous governments invested vast amounts of financial resources to address the problem of an ever-increasing work force. Nevertheless, the policies adopted have never been effective enough.

Experts believe that there cannot be a separate economic policy tackling unemployment and that it must be an integral part of a broader economic policy aiming to create sustainable economic growth. Therefore, it is unlikely to expect the new economic policies adopted by the government of prudence and hope to bear fruit just yet.

Since President Hassan Rouhani took office over a year ago, Iran has faced stagflation, high inflation, lack of cash flow and industrial investments, the importation of unnecessary luxury products, and economic sanctions imposed by Western nations. Therefore, resolving the unemployment crisis will require structural economic reform as well as patience.

The Statistical Center of Iran has put the unemployment figure at about 2.53 million, while some government officials say 6 million people are unemployed. In addition, the Iranian economy should accommodate the additional 11 million university graduates who are expected to flood the workforce in the next 7 years.

According to the Ministry of Labor, Cooperatives, and Social Welfare, Iran's active workforce stands at about 22 million and is expected to rise to 35 million in the next 7 years. In other words, the government must take into account the need to create 13 million job opportunities in the next few years.

Source: Tehran Times