The Statistical Center of Iran (SCI) claims that the unemployment rate in 2019 decreased by about 1.5 percent compared with 2018 and went down to 10.7 percent.
Decreasing unemployment however runs counter to the factual economic conditions last year. Iran faced its worst economic downturn in 2019, with 6.5 to 9 percent contraction in Gross Domestic Product.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) also reported on April 15 that the unemployment rate in Iran reached 13.6 percent at the end of 2019 and will reach 16.3 percent this year.
In its new report, SCI also says that the unemployment rate for young people aged 15 to 24 was 26% in 2019.
Nonetheless, experts and non-governmental organizations have always questioned the reliability of the official economic data and reports in the clergy-dominated Iran.
The Islamic Parliament Research Center (IPRC) recently reported that between 2.8 million and 6.4 million people are "expected to be added to the unemployed population periodically" due to the spread of coronavirus, quarantine, and the government's policies.
Coronavirus' outbreak has reportedly severely damaged the Iranian service sector, while the SCI says that 50.3 percent of the country's total workforce was employed in the sector last year.
Furthermore, SCI maintains that the number of employees aged fifteen and over in 2019 was 24 million 274 thousand, which shows an increase of about 430 thousand compared with the previous year.