Labor force participation rate for ages 15-24, female (%) (national estimate)_

Event_Log

1. 012020COVID-19 declared a pandemicAssociation

   WHO declaration triggers synchronized global lockdowns, an oil-demand collapse (WTI briefly trades negative on 20 April 2020), and unprecedented fiscal/monetary stimulus across every country in this database.

   Why this link: Youth (15-24) female labor force participation fell from 11.1% (2019) to 7.98% (2020), its lowest level in this sparse series, and stayed near that level through 2022 (8.06%) before recovering to 9.3% (2023-24) -- consistent with global evidence that young women's employment was disproportionately hit by pandemic-era lockdowns and job losses concentrated in youth-heavy, female-heavy service-sector work (retail, hospitality, informal services).

   Caveat: This series is measured only in scattered, non-annual years (large gaps between observations, e.g. 1996 to 2005), so the precise timing and size of any single-year move should be read cautiously; Iran's already very low female youth labor-force participation (rarely above 15% even before 2020) means small absolute changes translate into large-looking percentage swings.

   Lag: immediate (same year)Source: World Health Organization