Financial Tribune - The Iranian labor market has undergone remarkable transformations in recent years. One such unique change is the rise in the number of persons with income but without a job.

According to a report by the Persian-language daily Iran citing figures released by the Statistical Center of Iran, the economically inactive population of Iran has reached 39.3 million, of whom 27.5 million are women and 11.7 million are men.

A person is economically inactive, according to the International Labor Organization, if he or she is not part of the labor force. In other words, inactive people are neither employed nor unemployed.

The inactive population can include pre-school children, schoolchildren, students, pensioners and housewives, for example, provided that they are not working at all and not available or looking for work either; some of these may be of working age.

Housewives account for the lion�s share of economically inactive population with 20.4 million, followed by students numbering 11.4 million.