The labor market in prerevolutionary Iran.

By the late 1970s, the urban labor market was a shambles. Unskilled migrants had been pouring into the cities, especially Tehran; manufacturing jobs had failed totally to keep pace; the number of unemployed and underemployed had soared. Several million unemployed and grossly underemployed, many of whom were recent migrants, were roaming the streets of Iran's cities. In such a context, the world recession and changing development policy had disastrous effects. Add to this situation a fairly strong historical tendency for economic problems (eg, a rise in the price index) to be followed by unrest in Iran, and the economic stage was set for the Iranian Revolution. -from Author