Iraq has the world's highest number of public sector employees

[size=33]Iraq has the world's highest number of public sector employees[/size]

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A customer counting money at Al-Rafidain Bank in Baghdad (Reuters)
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11/23/2022
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The economic file in Iraq remains one of the most complex and most ambiguous files at the same time, in addition to the shocking figures revealed by economic research institutions and the consequent government reactions and measures.
In a report recently published by the independent "Iraq Future" institution concerned with economic affairs, it was revealed that Iraq is the largest country with the number of government employees relative to the total workforce, based on a study prepared by the International Labor Organization and the institution's data.

The head of the institution, Manar Al-Obaidi, said that the percentage of workers in the government sector in Iraq amounted to 37% among a group of countries included in the study, as the government sector is considered the most pressure on the state’s general budget, which goes in its entirety as salaries to employees, without the presence of real production equivalent to these high expenses as a result of not creating an investment environment. It contributes to encouraging the private sector and providing job opportunities through it, which increases pressure on the public sector.
 
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Al-Obeidi: 37% of the labor force in Iraq works in government jobs (Al-Jazeera Net)

Shocking numbers

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According to the Iraq Future Foundation (an independent institution), Saudi Arabia ranked second with a rate of 35.3% in the number of employees to the labor force, followed by China with a rate of 28%, and the study included 12 countries.
Meanwhile, the economist Mustafa Akram Hantoush points out that the statistics on the number of employees in Iraq are inaccurate, but the advertiser confirms the presence of approximately 2.5 million employees in the civil public sector, in addition to 1.75 million employees in the security services that include the Ministries of Defense and Interior and Combat Terrorism, intelligence, etc. Thus, there are approximately 4.5 million government employees in Iraq.
Not only that - Hantoush continues in his interview with Al-Jazeera Net - there are about 3.5 million Iraqis who receive pension salaries from the state, and these are outside the 37% of the total declared workforce, taking into account that part of the budget goes to the retirement fund due to not owning much Retirees for retirement savings in the pension fund, which was rebuilt in 2008, according to Hantoush.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Hantoush: 9.5 million Iraqis depend directly on the state for their livelihood (Al-Jazeera Net)
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Retirees and social care

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The story did not end here, as the numbers of Iraqis who receive salaries from the state are large, as Hantoush confirms that approximately 1.5 million Iraqis receive salaries within what is known as social welfare (monthly salaries granted by the Ministry of Labor to poor families), and therefore the total number of Iraqis who receive monthly salaries from The state An estimated 9.5 million Iraqis depend on the state for their livelihood directly (employees, retirees, and people with social welfare), which may constitute 23% of the population of Iraq, whose population is estimated by the Ministry of Planning to be about 42 million.
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These figures are confirmed by Professor of Economics at the Iraqi University, Abdul Rahman Al-Mashhadani, where he added that salaries generally consume about 75% of the value of the country's general budget, pointing out that the productivity of the Iraqi employee varies from one department to another, and that the World Bank had estimated the average employee working hours in Iraq. About 17 minutes only, depending on the total number of employees in relation to the labor force.
In continuation of the record numbers in this file, Mazhar Muhammad Salih, the economic advisor to the Iraqi Prime Minister, revealed that the Iraqi government is the wealthy entity that accounts for nearly 65% ​​of the country's gross domestic product.
And he continues in his speech to Al-Jazeera Net that the percentage of public employees in Iraq is estimated at about 37% of the total labor force in the country, which means that there is a government employee for every 10 citizens, while these percentages differ from one country to another, as the government employee in Germany It serves 150 citizens, and in Egypt there is an employee for every 25 people, and Iraq is the highest in the world in these percentages, according to Saleh.
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contradictions

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The data disclosed by the Future Iraq Foundation indicate many question marks, especially since Jamal Cougar, a member of the Parliamentary Finance Committee, had revealed earlier that the number of employees in the Iraqi state exceeds global ratios by about 9 times, as well as international standards for public employment for all societies. Which imposes the existence of one employee for every 100 individuals, which contradicts the Iraqi reality, and leads to the conclusion that about 9% of Iraqis work in government institutions as employees who are still in the public service.
Although Iraq is the highest in the number of employees in the world, there are many Iraqi state institutions that suffer from a scarcity in their numbers, which is indicated by Al-Mashhadani in that there is a flabby and scarcity of employees at the same time within the state institutions, as the Ministries of Education and Higher Education complain of a lack of employees, In addition to the sluggishness of employment in city centers, it is offset by the lack of cadres in villages and rural areas, which confirms the poor job distribution in the state ministries.
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Returning to Hantoush, where he comments on this point by saying, "We have deadly routine procedures in employment and work within the government service, and therefore this large number within the government sector is not an excessive number, but in fact there is no work for them, as routine and corruption make it difficult to obtain on public services, which created sluggishness in the public sector.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Jamal Cougar confirms that the number of employees in the Iraqi state exceeds global proportions by about 9 times (Al-Jazeera)
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The size of the workforce

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As for the size of the labor force that is added annually to the Iraqi market, Hantoush says that there is a large population increase in Iraq, and an estimated 250,000 people with university degrees enter the labor market annually, as well as about 500,000 people who are professionals and inexperienced, taking into account The labor market only accommodates 100-150,000 job opportunities annually, meaning that there is a surplus in the number of labor force estimated at about 150,000 for those with certificates and about 250,000 for professionals and inexperienced people, with a total of 350,000 added to the unemployed annually.
Hantoush attributes the continued rise in unemployment to the fact that Iraq does not have a private sector in the fields of industry and investment, with the exception of businesses that he described as "micro", which include small shops and others without large investments, attributing the matter to rampant corruption.
He considered that the absence of a clear investment plan for the state led to Iraq being burdened with about $67 billion in salaries for employees, retirees and others who receive salaries from the state.
For his part, Saleh asserts that the country annually witnesses 500 thousand people entering the labor market inside the country, which contributes to putting more pressure on the government to provide job opportunities in the public sector, according to him.
By knowing that 37% of the labor force in Iraq works in the public sector, and if the total number of employees is 4.5 million employees, then the total labor force in Iraq is more than 12 million.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Al-Mashhadani: 75% of the budget goes to salaries for employees and retirees (Al-Jazeera Net)
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A popular explosion is coming

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Commenting on this, Salih says that the rent of the Iraqi economy, which has been dependent on oil by 93% for 30 years, occupies only about 1% of the labor force in Iraq in the oil sector, adding to Al-Jazeera Net that the main problem lies in the weakness of the investment side, inferring about 9 thousand An investment project languishing in the country, with a total value of about $250 billion, could have provided tens of thousands of job opportunities.
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During the Corona pandemic, oil prices collapsed in 2020, causing the government's inability to pay employees' salaries regularly, which lasted for many months that only ended with a rise in oil prices months ago.
Al-Mashhadani comments on this by saying that international reports and expectations indicate that the world may be exposed to a wave of economic recession and a decline in oil prices, which always witness a setback every 4 to 5 years. .
And he continues to Al-Jazeera Net that the problem of unemployment cannot be addressed through government employment, and that the private sector is always exposed to setbacks that may be intended, on behalf of Iraq's neighboring countries that export their goods to Iraq.
It is not far from the minds of what happened in recent years in terms of demonstrations calling for job opportunities, which forced the government to open the door to employment for many segments of graduates, in an attempt to absorb the anger of the street as a result of unemployment without taking into account any future outcomes.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Mazhar Muhammad Salih: 93% of Iraq's imports depend on oil, and the oil sector employs only 1% of the labor force (Al-Jazeera Net)
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An ambitious government plan

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Although there are many drawbacks due to the inflated number of employees, this has advantages, according to what Salih believes, in that there is a kind of justice in the distribution of employees in Iraq, which is what made the majority of Iraqis live on government salaries.
However, at the same time, he indicates a future problem, commenting, “The population is rapidly increasing, and after 10 years it will reach nearly 60 million, and this will constitute a challenge for future governments in terms of remaining dependent on oil, which no one knows the extent to which current prices can continue and the world’s dependence on it as a source.” Major Energy.

To address this, Saleh reveals that the current government program establishes what he described as a "breakthrough point", as the state aspires to reduce the budget's dependence on oil from 93% to 80% within 3 years from now, by relying on other revenues.
And he confirms the government's approach to this through two tracks, the first by investing oil revenues in the development fund to lend to the private sector and projects, and the second through the establishment of a sovereign wealth fund that will operate sovereign assets internally for the benefit of the economic system to form what it described as a lever for the economy.
He concludes by saying, "If the government succeeds in this, it will constitute an opportunity to employ the unemployed at a stage different from the previous one, while easing pressure on the public sector."
Returning to Hantoush, he believes that it is necessary to activate the private sector by amending all laws related to investment, establishing companies and the Securities Commission, in order to keep pace with the private labor market.
As for the head of the Iraq Future Foundation, he referred to a set of steps that the Iraqi government should take, including working to create a healthy investment environment capable of attracting funds to various sectors, supporting the private sector, and enacting labor laws that are in line with the requirements of the current labor market.
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And he warned that with the continued population growth rates, this will increase pressure on the government to provide job opportunities, which may herald a real disaster that must be resolved with bold and proactive steps.[/size]
Source : Al Jazeera
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