Nearly 22 million people are employed in various economic sectors in the country and 2.5 million are jobless, said Gholamreza Kateb, deputy minister of cooperatives, labor and social welfare, adding that “an individual is considered unemployed when he does not perform any services even for one hour in a week.” Currently, the youth unemployment rate is 18%. Female and male university graduates accounted for 30% and 12% of the unemployed population, respectively, IRNA quoted him as saying.
