Iran is hemorrhaging jobs as wartime pressures devastate businesses across the country. A government-imposed internet shutdown has gutted the tech sector, while U.S. port blockades and industrial strikes have frozen production lines. The crisis has pushed unemployment to unprecedented levels, with official estimates suggesting 1-2 million Iranians have lost their jobs in recent weeks alone.

Before the current conflict, Iran was already reeling from years of sanctions and mismanagement. The digital economy—once a source of hope—has been brought to its knees by the internet blackout, which costs the country up to $80 million per day in lost productivity. Even before the war escalated, companies were cutting staff just to survive galloping inflation and a collapsing currency.

Major corporations are feeling the pain acutely. Digikala, Iran's largest e-commerce platform known as the Amazon of the country, recently cut 200 employees—three percent of its workforce. The startup Kamva shut down entirely, citing an inability to overcome repeated crises. In the industrial heartland, textile factories have laid off hundreds of workers as petrochemical plants targeted by airstrikes starve related industries of raw materials.

For ordinary Iranians like Babak, a 49-year-old designer who has been laid off twice in a year, the economic vortex is personal. Families are selling cars and jewelry just to survive as the government's minimum wage hike backfired spectacularly, intensifying layoffs. With tax revenues evaporating and public spending slashed, Iran's leadership faces mounting pressure from citizens who have protested economic collapse repeatedly since 2017.