Iranians report layoffs, soaring prices and empty tables

Iran International viewers reported widespread layoffs, soaring prices of basic goods, unemployment, food insecurity and growing inability to pay rent, as economic pressure deepens during the war.

One viewer said at least 2,000 people had been laid off across production, industrial and service units in Rasht, a city in northern Iran.

Another viewer said Islamic Republic state TV’s news channel had run a caption saying Iran was at war, basic goods were expensive and people should “get used to it.”

A former worker at the Marvdasht petrochemical complex in Fars province said he had been laid off and had been unemployed for two months.

“I have an elderly mother and I am ashamed before her,” the viewer said. “We have reduced our food consumption to one meal a day, and even that is barely manageable. I have not paid rent either. The situation is terrible.”