Financial Tribune - The government will allocate 50,000 billion rials ($305 million) to Unemployment Insurance Fund to support those who have lost their jobs amid the outbreak of coronavirus, an official with the Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare said.

“To prevent the spread of the virus, applicants are urged to fill out online forms for unemployment benefits at the newly-designed website 'bimebikari.mcls.gov.ir' within 30 days, rather than going personally to the ministry’s bureaus," Masoud Babaie added.

“As per a joint guideline signed by the Cooperatives Ministry and the Social Security Organization on March 30, workers of 10 job groups and economic subsectors that have been hit by coronavirus outbreak and are subject to the provisions of the Islamic Republic of Iran Labor Law, the Social Security Act and the Unemployment Insurance Law will qualify to receive unemployment benefits for three months,” he was quoted as saying by IRNA.

The official noted that other policyholders, such as those who have insurance granted to the self-employed, construction workers, carpet weavers, public transportation operators and drivers, are not eligible for unemployment benefits.

Earlier, the Central Bank of Iran released a list of businesses that have been directly affected by the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, the COVID-19. These businesses can apply to receive bank support and facilities.

The list includes food preparation and distribution centers, including restaurants, buffets, teahouses and other such centers; tourism centers, including hotels, inns, hostels, road recreation and service providing centers and other such businesses identified by the Ministry of Industries, Mining and Trade; air, rail and road transportation whether inter- or intra-city; travel agencies; apparel production and distribution units; bags and footwear production and distribution units; distributors of nuts and dried fruit, confectioneries, ice cream and juice outlets; sport and recreational centers; cultural and educational centers; and handicraft production and distribution centers, ILNA reported.

Iran’s unemployment rate, the proportion of jobless population of ages 15 and above, stood at 10.6% in the fourth quarter of the current Iranian year (Dec. 22, 2019-March 19), indicating a 1.7% decline compared with the same period of last year.

These numbers were calculated between Feb. 1-14, before the outbreak of coronavirus, when the labor market was in better shape, the latest report by the Statistical Center of Iran shows.

A total of 2,788,587 Iranians were unemployed in Q4. Men’s unemployment stood at 9.2% while the rate for women hovered around 17.2%. Over 1.97 million men and 812,902 women of ages 15 and above were jobless in Q4.

The unemployment rate was 11.4% for urban areas (2.23 million people) and 8.5% for rural areas (554,330 people).

The center provides two figures for the youth unemployment rate: the proportion of the population between 15 and 24 years and those between 18 and 35 years.

The youth unemployment rate of those between 15 and 24 years stood at 25.7% in Q4, posting a 2.4% decrease while the unemployment rate of those between 18 and 35 years stood at 17.8%, posting a decline of 1.6% YOY.

The services sector comprised 52.7% of the Iranian employed population (12.34 million), 1% more than the corresponding period of last year, whereas industrial and agricultural sectors provided 31.7% and 15.6% of the jobs respectively.

Over 7.42 million were employed in the industrial sector, indicating a decrease of 0.6% compared with the year before and 3.65 million worked in agriculture, posting a 0.4% decline YOY.

The services sector consists of wholesale and retail trade; restaurants and hotels; transport, storage and communications; financing, insurance, real estate and business services; as well as community, social, education, health and personal services.

The sector employed 10.08 million men and 2.26 million women in the three-month period; over 6.39 million men and 1.03 million women were working in the industrial sector and 3.03 million men and 619,677 women worked in the agriculture sector in Q4.

Services sector accounted for 61.7% or 10.75 million of all jobs in urban areas and 26.5% or 1.58 million of jobs in rural areas. The industrial sector made up 33.1% or 5.78 million of the jobs in urban areas and comprised 27.5% or 1.64 million of employment in rural areas.

This is while 5.2% or 904,420 of the total jobs in urban areas and 45.9% or 2.75 million of the jobs in rural areas were in the agriculture sector.