Iran: more than 70% of architecture graduates are unemployed

Increasing unemployment crisis in Iran – “We youths are unemployed”

More than 70% of Iran’s construction graduates are unemployed, according to remarks made by the chair of the Architect Guild Center.

“We have fallen asleep and lost any sense of time, and our architecture community has lost its effectiveness. If up to last year 60% of our architecture graduates were unemployed, these statistics have now reached above 70%,” said Mohammad Reza Noruzian in an interview with Mehr news agency, associated to Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence.

“Our construction industry is engulfed in a tornado with a massive destructive force. With this trend continuing, we are concerned of an urban loss of identity in the not so distant future. This threat is actually doubled for historic cities such as Ghazvin (northwest Iran). The silence of our architecture and city construction industry, and city officials setting wrong objectives have all resulted in all of us having a share in this grave mistake,” he added.

“The architecture field that was absorbing 1,000 students in the countries universities back in 1996, saw only 20 such students last year in Ghazvin Province. If they block any new architecture students this year in our universities, the country won’t need any construction engineers for the next 20 years. Therefore, we expect from the Ministry of Sciences to whistle the end of this competition of accepting such students,” Noruzian concluded.