August 22, The Iran Project - In a March 30 speech in Gilan province, President Hassan Rouhani confirmed that unemployment has been a �heavy burden� on his administration. Rouhani�s government has been able to generate only a maximum of 700,000 jobs per year. Meanwhile, �VP Jahangiri labeled the job crisis in the country as a �super challenge��on April 15.

N?ow with Rouhani's winning second term in office, he and his team have to find solutions to tackle the issue.

President Rouhani referred to job creation as �the first duty of the new administration� and called on all executive bodies of the government to come up with special plans to tackle unemployment while addressing the first Cabinet session of his new term on Sunday (Aug 20).

The Statistical Center of Iran's latest report on unemployment shows the Rouhani administration managed to create 630,000 new jobs in the Iranian fiscal year that ended March 20. Yet these efforts are clearly insufficient as joblessness hit 12.4% in the same year.

While the average population entering the pool of qualified workforce each year was about 600,000 a decade ago, the number has soared to 900,000 over the past few years, thanks both to the population boom of the 1980s�21 million babies were born between 1980 and 1988�and the backlog created by diverting the working-age population to universities.

During a ceremony at which he was endorsed as president to take the office for a second term, President Rouhani�vowed to take fundamental steps to combat unemployment and improve the country�s economy based the policies of the Resistance Economy.

He said that�creating more job opportunities across the country will be top on the agenda in the 12th administration.

?Regarding the policies of the Resistance Economy stressed by Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, the government will proceed ahead with its economic plans to create an �economic revolution�, Rouhani reiterated.

Also in speaking to semi-official Mehr News Agency, Alaeddin Azvaji,�an official with the Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare, said his ministry�has devised a comprehensive plan to create sustainable jobs through three broad policies

�According to this plan, the ministry aims to create 651,900 new jobs related with the economic sectors� activities, another 228,000 jobs related with the political sectors� activities and 91,800 new jobs through monetary support to businesses," he noted.