2.5 million job plan approved in Iran

TEHRAN,March 14(MNA) - The Employment Higher Council of Iran approved a plan to create 2.5 million jobs in the next calendar year, which starts on March 20. Cooperatives, Labor, and Social Welfare Minister Abdolreza Sheikholeslami has said that the country plans to cut its unemployment rate to seven percent by the end of 2012, in line with the fifth socio-economic development plan (2010-2015). The unemployment rate in Iran stood at 13.5 percent last year, which ended on March 20, 2011, showing 1.6 percent rise on the preceding year, the Statistical Center of Iran reported. The report put the country’s jobless population during the third quarter of the current calendar year at over 2.6 million, according to Mehr news agency. To keep the current unemployment rate steady some $200 billion should be invested to create one million jobs annually, the Iranian vice Majlis speaker said in January. The nation’s working population was 25 million in the previous calendar year.