Unemployment Duration and Its Determinants: Evidences from Job Seekers in Yazd Province during the Third Development Plan

Although unemployment is mostly considered as an economic and social problem, unemployment duration in this manner is usually more important than rate of unemployment and absolute number of unemployed. Hence, it is possible to imagine the conditions that high rate of unemployment and short term unemployment duration occurs at the same time. This paper aims to seek those factors affecting unemployment duration. The statistical population used for the analysis was collected from the Labour and Social Work Affair Organization in Yazd province, which includes 68096 job seekers recorded during the years of Third Development Plan of Iran (2000-2004). Using questionnaires, a sample of 426 was studied. The Weibull Model, Exponential, Log-Normal as well as Log-Logistic models are also used for the analysis of the collected data. Log-Logistic model has explained unemployment duration much better than other models (i.e. Weibull Model, Exponential and Log-Normal models). In addition, age (with the positive effect), number of household persons, years of job experience, and educational level (with the negative effect) had a significant effect on unemployment duration. These means that highly educated persons, as well as years of job experience decrease average unemployment duration. However, marital status and gender had no significant effect on unemployment durations. Every policy that used for the reduction of unemployment duration in labour market should consider age, education, and skill.