Trend News Agency - Iran needs a permanent 8-percent GDP growth to create one million new jobs annually, President Hassan Rouhahi said May 12.

He said the net job creation index during Mahmoud Ahmadinejad�s presidency (2005-2013) was zero and the next government should compensate for the past, IRIB news reported on May 12.

Annually one million new young people reach work age, but the county�s unemployment rate was very high during the last decade.

According to the World Bank, Iranian economy bounced back sharply in 2016 at an estimated 6.4 percent, compared to the previous year.

However, the unemployment rate returned to a three-year high of 12.7 percent (or 3.3 million unemployed) in the second quarter of 2016 despite the high growth rate in this period.

The government spokesman Mohammad Bagher Nobakht said on May 9 that in order to reduce the rising unemployment rate in the country, Iran needs over $233 billion worth of investments annually to create 950,000 new jobs.