Page 19 - IRANRptAug21

PMI for Iran falls into contraction territory
A purchasing managers’ index (PMI) provided by the Iran Chamber gives the Islamic Republic a reading of 45.79 in the fifth Persian calendar month (ended August 22) compared to 50.07 in the preceding month and 50.66 in the month before that.
With any figure below 50 indicating a contraction, the decline in the PMI figures can only be taken as another indication of the deleterious heavy sanctions campaign being waged against Iran by the US. Credit inside the country remains tight for lending, meanwhile, and the long hot summer in Iran is said to have hit demand across multiple sectors, impacting many factories.
Iran Chamber (full name Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture) publishes PMI data for industry overall and 12 of its subfields. It has plans to expand its PMI coverage to sectors including agriculture at a later date.
4.3 Labour and income
4.3.1 Labour market, unemployment dynamics
Unemployment rate estimated at 9.8% in 2020
Pandemic ‘could leave up to quarter of Iran’s workforce jobless’
According to the Central Bank of Iran, the country’s unemployment rate stood at 9.4% y/y in the fourth quarter of 2020, down from 9.5% y/y in the previous quarter. Iran's unemployment rate was estimated to reach 9.8% of the total labor force in 2020. The unemployment rate has been above 10% for the last 10 years, and this rate is estimated to have peaked in 2014 when it reached 14%.
Youth unemployment (covering the 15-29 age range), stands at least twice the general joblessness rate, according to latest available data, while university graduate unemployment is thought to be around 40%. Despite the many times the government has stressed the need to boost employment, overall youth unemployment has risen more than 5% in the past three years.
As many as 6.43mn Iranians, making up around a quarter of the workforce of Iran, could find themselves jobless because of the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, according to a study by Iran’s Parliament Research Centre.
A minimum of 2.87mn jobs would be lost amid the health and economic emergency, the study also concluded.
19 IRAN Country Report August 2021 www.intellinews.com