Iran’s constitution emphasizes social justice and obliges government to provide a job for
every citizen. But in fact, the government’s duty to provide jobs has shifted to government
support for a measure designed to create new employment opportunities through subsidized
loans to the private sector. This policy has not been successful to date, and the current stock
of unemployed workers is about three million—12.75 percent of the country’s labor force.
To realize the desire of the Iranian people to achieve full employment and
social justice, the government must implement employment guarantee schemes, or EGS, in
the most deprived areas. Elected town and village councils can design and manage the public
works with the help of other government, as well as nongovernment, institutions. Programs
can be financed using less than ten percent of the annual oil-exporting revenue that is
deposited in the Oil Stabilization Fund.