Iran will create over 1.1m jobs by March 2013: Iranian official

TEHRAN,Sept.9(MNA) - Iranian Cooperatives, Labor, and Social Welfare Minister Abdolreza Sheikholeslami said that 1.115 million new jobs will be created in the current calendar year, which ends on March 20, 2013. The unemployment rate is planned to be cut to seven percent by the end of the fifth socio-economic development plan (March 2016), he added. To this end, 5.5 million new jobs should be created, he noted. Iran's High Council of Employment has approved allocating 45 trillion rials (some $37 billion) to job creation plans in the current calendar year, the deputy cooperatives, labor, and social welfare minister said on July 24. The Mehr news agency quoted Mohammad-Hossein Forouzanmehr as saying that some 1.6 million jobs were created last year. The unemployment rate in Iran stood at 12.3 percent in the past calendar year, showing 1.2 percent fall compared to its preceding year, according to the Statistical Center of Iran.