Iranian government had always been criticized for announcing unreal unemployment rates. Local economists believe that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s government tries to hide the real unemployment rate from citizens in order to keep them unwise about the situations of Iran’s economy. This charge has been denied by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in several press-conferences.
Ali Akbar Labbafi, a high-ranking official of Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare, says the government has started a new project in order to validate current unemployment rate of country. “Iranian government is always clear about statistic published by its economic departments. However, we have received negative reports about the unemployment rate of Iran. In fact, some political parties are aiming to defame Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s government. So we are going to establish a committee to find the real unemployment rate of our country. The results of this study will be announced by the end of current Persian year.”
During the recent years, Iranian parliament has stopped monitoring unemployment rate of the country, and this had led to numerous disputes inside Islamic Republic. Iran’s economy has been hit by international embargoes, and this must naturally affect unemployment rate. But the government announced lower unemployment rate even after being sanctioned by the United States and European Union.
Islamic Republic has lost major parts of its oil exports revenues. Western countries have imposed several rounds of sanction on Iran in order to convince the country to stop its nuclear activities.