False occupation is one of those attractive titles that many presidential and parliamentary candidates have sought to benefit from by showing their concern for it.

These days, the situation of unemployment and lack of job has reached a point where people turn to fake jobs to escape unemployment. In other words, unemployment has reached such a level in society that the statistics of jobs that do not benefit the country’s economy are increasing; jobs that are known to people as one of their thousands of pains and ultimately have nothing but a minimum income for their owners, but are considered a concern and credibility by many members of parliament and presidential candidates.

In fact, false employment is a type of unemployment for society, in which individuals are placed in a job position or position that is not suitable for their education or skills. These types of jobs are considered false because they do not result in providing a specific service or offering a product to society. Many economic experts do not see this definition as an indication of whether the job position the person is employed in is good or bad, but rather the lack of compatibility between their skills, knowledge, and the job itself becomes problematic.

Among these, almost all experts and professors of economics consider unemployment as the mother of all economic problems, and they consider factors such as poverty, addiction, and mental and psychological problems as a small part of the problems caused by unemployment. They also refer to a society that cannot utilize its workforce as an unhealthy society.

However, these days, the bad economic conditions have proven to everyone that fake jobs and their negative impacts on the economy of society. 

Ensuring the health of a society is a challenging task and can lead to many social and cultural problems.

Amidst the increasing attraction towards false jobs, the interest in continuing education and acquiring knowledge and technical skills decreases. This trend gradually spreads the false belief among people that one can obtain a job and income without having knowledge and skills. As a result, the educational system suffers serious damages due to students and parents being encouraged to drop out of school. In fact, economic pressures always lead individuals to seek an escape route to reduce their financial problems. Therefore, they tend to lean towards short-term income generation, where there is no mention of paying taxes. This is while if the majority of society pursues jobs outside their field of education and expertise, the society will eventually face many problems in various industrial, economic, and social areas due to the lack of specialized individuals in different job positions or the employment of unskilled individuals in those positions.

These days, fake jobs have become much more widespread than in the past. According to an article published in one of the reputable Iranian news agencies, these jobs include parking attendants, fortune tellers, taxi drivers (using personal cars for transportation), mourners at graves, companions for the sick, street vendors, and saleswomen trying to attract customers in shops. At first glance, this may not seem too concerning, but when people turn to dangerous jobs such as changing license plates and smuggling, just to make a living and meet their basic needs, we should expect events that also threaten the health of society. For example, we have seen many videos on social media these days of people who were financially stable, and in those videos, they referred to new models of fraud, where they would throw themselves in front of other people’s cars and demand compensation and damages. In this regard, many of these people suggested to others to use special cameras in front of their cars as a solution.

In such conditions, it seems that not only individuals who are unemployed, but also those who are employed, do not feel secure and are constantly faced with such concerns. This in itself, over time, also leads skilled and capable individuals to consider immigrating to safer areas outside the country.

However, many researchers attribute the creation of fake jobs to factors such as lack of alignment between the needed jobs in society and the number of graduates in different fields from universities, shortage of capital to create jobs suitable for the acquired degree from university, financial problems, addiction, divorce, lack of proper upbringing, and many other issues.

False occupation and social problems

While the bad economic conditions and high inflation, which have been caused by various reasons in the Islamic Republic, have led to the closure of many production and agricultural centers in the country, this has also forced many people to turn to fake jobs such as selling on social media networks in order to make a living – which is not possible with the current government salaries. The existence of these networks has also created other problems at a macro level for society; for example, for real sellers who used to operate in different sectors by renting or buying a place to sell their goods, problems have arisen. These sellers, who legally pay rent or buy a space as a shop and pay various taxes, customs duties, and thousands of other problems to support their livelihood, are now facing a problem similar to that of Instagram sellers who make money without paying any taxes or customs fees, and only carry out their business in a suitcase.

Many people who are not satisfied with their conditions inside the country, hope for a better future and choose to migrate. The increase in the number of immigrants to neighboring and unfamiliar countries, and their lack of language skills or special skills, leads them to choose the first and easiest job, such as working in virtual networks or as salespeople. This in turn leads to an increase in the entry of illegal goods and smuggling into the country in the form of suitcases.

This is happening while, in general, the increase in emigration from the country is disrupting the balance in different societies. The disturbance caused by this balance has wide consequences. The decrease in young workforce at the origin, decrease in job opportunities at the destination, and the uncontrolled increase and decrease of population, as well as problems arising from unfamiliarity and strangeness of different cultures among immigrants, are examples of the effects of migration.

Of course, it should not be forgotten that migration does not only refer to international migration. In many cases, migration can include moving from villages to cities or from small towns to metropolises or industrial cities. The depopulation of many villages due to lack of jobs and suitable living conditions gradually leads to the closure of many businesses dependent on these communities, including agriculture and animal husbandry, and in a way, it also affects domestic production in the fields of agriculture and animal husbandry; because there is no one left to plan and invest for large industries. That is when no responsible person is chosen to take responsibility for the false claim of being concerned about unemployed individuals and creating jobs.