Iran witnesses a deeper economic crisis as layoffs spread across businesses, after the war, U.S.-Israeli strikes, the naval blockade and the internet shutdown multiplied pressure on a private sector that was already struggling under sanctions, corruption, mismanagement and currency collapse.
Reports reviewed by Ontime+ show that Iranian companies have begun carrying out repeated rounds of layoffs, while the internet crisis, shortages of raw materials and disrupted imports have become direct factors paralyzing the technology, industrial and trade sectors.
Details
* The Iranian government imposed a broad internet shutdown at the start of the U.S.-Israeli war, throwing the technology sector into chaos and making many jobs impossible to continue.
* The head of an Iranian tech lobbying group estimates that the internet shutdown is costing the country up to $80 million per day in direct and indirect losses.
* Digikala, known as Iran’s Amazon and the country’s leading tech company, laid off around 200 employees, equivalent to 3% of its workforce, linking the decision to the recent instability.
* Iranian e-commerce company Kamva announced its full closure, after its founder said the company could no longer get through the crisis following two wars and months of internet shutdown.
* In the industrial sector, the biggest blow came from raw material shortages after petrochemical and steel facilities were hit during the U.S.-Israeli strikes, in addition to disrupted imports caused by the blockade on Iranian ports.
* Iranian labor reports indicate that a textile factory in western Iran laid off 700 of its 800 workers, while another factory in northern Iran laid off 500 workers.
* Not all job losses appear as formal layoffs, as many companies are operating at minimum capacity or intermittently, relying on non-renewal of contracts, reduced working hours and forced leave.
* An Iranian government official estimated that the war has caused the loss of one million jobs, in addition to direct and indirect unemployment affecting two million people.
* An Iranian job search platform recorded a new high on April 25 after receiving 318,000 résumés in one day, 50% above the previous record.
* Industrial sector estimates suggest that the contraction could affect up to 3.5 million workers, showing that the crisis is no longer limited to tech companies or factories directly damaged by strikes.
* Government decisions have increased pressure on companies instead of easing it, after the minimum wage was raised by 60% in March to keep up with inflation, creating an additional shock for businesses and pushing some to accelerate layoffs.
* Iran’s prewar budget was already based on reduced public spending after inflation and greater reliance on taxes, but the private sector’s decline is likely to sharply reduce tax revenues.
* The crisis carries serious political risk because economic anger has been one of the drivers of repeated protests in Iran over the past decade, including major demonstrations that began in December as the currency collapsed.
* Iran’s supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, urged companies to avoid layoffs as much as possible, but many of the crises hitting these companies are directly tied to government decisions, especially the internet shutdown and the management of the economy under war and sanctions.
What’s Next?
Iran is now facing a layered crisis: companies unable to work because of the internet shutdown, factories without raw materials, ports under blockade, and workers losing jobs or wages gradually without the full scale appearing in official statistics.
The bigger danger is that the economic pressure Washington wants to use as a tool to force Tehran to back down could turn internally into a new wave of social anger if unemployment expands and the currency continues losing value. Meanwhile, Iran’s leadership insists that pressure will not lead to surrender, leaving companies and workers at the center of a long war of attrition between war, economy and politics.
