Financial Tribune - A total of 840,944 people have filed for unemployment benefits by June 8th, of whom 703,430 were found eligible, says, an official with the Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare.

“The lion’s share of job losses following the outbreak of coronavirus occurred in the month ending March 19 with 372,891; unemployment payments for 241,000 of them started on Sunday,” Masoud Babaie was also quoted as saying by Fars News Agency.

Back in early April, Babaie said the government would allocate 50,000 billion rials ($282.48 million) to Unemployment Insurance Fund to support those who have lost their jobs amid the outbreak of coronavirus.

Noting that the total number of individuals receiving unemployment benefits last year (March 2019-20) was 260,000, he said, “To prevent the spread of the virus, applicants were urged to fill out online forms for unemployment benefits at the newly-designed website 'bimebikari.mcls.gov.ir'.”