Financial Tribune - A total of 840,944 people have filed for unemployment benefits by June 8th, of whom 703,430 were found eligible, says, an official with the Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare.

�The lion�s share of job losses following the outbreak of coronavirus occurred in the month ending March 19 with 372,891; unemployment payments for 241,000 of them started on Sunday,� Masoud Babaie was also quoted as saying by Fars News Agency.

Back in early April, Babaie said the government would allocate 50,000 billion rials ($282.48 million) to Unemployment Insurance Fund to support those who have lost their jobs amid the outbreak of coronavirus.

Noting that the total number of individuals receiving unemployment benefits last year (March 2019-20) was 260,000, he said, �To prevent the spread of the virus, applicants were urged to fill out online forms for unemployment benefits at the newly-designed website 'bimebikari.mcls.gov.ir'.�