Time reports that the Iranian economy is in a dire state, more than Tehran would like to reveal. The Iranian government has even stopped reporting economic statistics, as financial anxiety is encroaching upon the Islamic Republic’s stability.
Although the Iranian government has ceased official economic reports, unofficial sources still report the growing labor problems; one report states that a privately owned industrial-parts company in Isfahan has not paid 200 of its employees for the past 7 months. Additional problems were reported in an Isafahani steel plant, where workers started a hunger strike to protest vast discrepancies in their pay. In Shiraz, Gorgan, and cities all over Iran, more reports assert that workers  have gone unpaid for months, with some employers even failing to pay state insurance, letting working conditions steadily diminish. Still, there is no official recognition of the growing economic problems.

An Iranian journalist explains “they have manipulated the definition of who is jobless so they can keep the figure close to 10%. But now every family has one jobless person in their home.”
…
“They cannot believe all those optimistic figures given by the government. The government says that inflation was less than 30%, but they go to the grocery store and find everything is double and triple the price that it was four years ago.”

The official figures fall short of Iran’s targeted economic development plan, while unemployment is predicted to be over 24%. Ahmadinejad was elected on the campaign platform of economic success, yet has failed to deliver upon his promise.  Iranian media continues to depict a thriving economy, while ordinary Iranians feel the brunt of inflation, adding yet another shaky ingredient to the Islamic Republic’s future.