Unemployment rates are declining in Iraq.. How did job opportunities absorb the unemployed?

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[size=52]Unemployment rates are declining in Iraq.. How did job opportunities absorb the unemployed?[/size]

[size=45]The Ministry of Planning expects unemployment in the country to decline compared to the previous three years, thanks to employment procedures and the absorption of large numbers of graduates into government departments, especially those with higher degrees (Masters, PhD), and the launch of government employment platforms. However, all jobs launched by the government depend on the state’s financial budget, which is criticized by observers and economic experts, without opening factories and plants that have been idle for more than two decades.
The Ministry of Planning announced the conduct of a new economic and social survey of Iraqi families, and that expectations show a decline in unemployment rates compared to 2021, noting that the development projects and economic renaissance witnessed by Iraq under the current government contributed to the decline in unemployment rates.
The ministry’s spokesman, Abdul Zahra Al-Hindawi, said, “The unemployment rate in the last survey conducted by the Statistics Authority in 2021 reached 16.5%, as unemployment was high among women at about 28%, while it was 14% among men.”
Al-Hindawi explained that “the 2021 survey was implemented under exceptional circumstances due to the Corona pandemic, as the pandemic caused many activities and projects to stop, which led to an increase in unemployment levels in the country. A new survey, the Household Economic and Social Survey, was implemented, and its results will appear soon to provide an accurate picture of the current situation.”
He continued by saying that “expectations indicate the possibility of a decrease in unemployment rates in Iraq, especially in light of the major projects currently being implemented,” noting that “the general population census that will be implemented next November will also contribute to determining the unemployment rate more accurately.”
He stressed that “in the past two years, Iraq has witnessed the beginning of the implementation of many vital projects, whether they are new, such as projects to relieve traffic congestion and residential complexes, or the resumption of work on suspended projects, and these projects have contributed significantly to providing new job opportunities, which contributes to reducing the unemployment rate.” The
unemployment problem in Iraq is one of the most prominent challenges facing Iraqi governments after the US occupation in 2003, and all figures confirm that it is expanding, and with it the poverty index is rising in an oil-rich country.
The number of university graduates who have not been able to find jobs is also increasing, due to the lack of a real vision by the Iraqi state, in addition to the lack of security, political and economic stability.
The country has witnessed large waves of protests by unemployed youth in many Iraqi governorates, reaching the point of closing state institutions and oil company headquarters in southern Iraq. These protests are not abating despite the promises made by governments to work to reduce unemployment and poverty in the country.
The Ministry of Planning had indicated that the unemployment rate in Iraq reached 16.5%, according to a survey conducted by the Central Statistical Organization, in cooperation with the International Labor Organization, of the total economically active population. The ministry stated in a statement that “this rate is higher among women by more than 25% compared to men, as it ranges between 11 and 12%.”
In this context, the head of the “Iraqi House” movement, Mohi Al-Ansari, said that “the ruling regime in Iraq after 2003 sought to seize power through a rentier economy and bribe society through random, unproductive employment in the public sector, which is the worst and most flabby in the world.”
He added, "Successive governments do not stop misleading the Iraqi public opinion and linking work to employment in government institutions, until Iraq spends about 80% of its budgets on employee salaries, which basically increases with every crisis the political system suffers in its internal legitimacy, which it finds no way to address except by bribing society with jobs.
" Al-Ansari continued, "The statements issued from time to time to activate the private sector and investment are nothing more than bubbles for local media consumption, since the public system is unable to confront the rampant corruption in all sectors of government institutions and directly backfires on any step taken to institutionalize investment and encourage the private sector, which clashes with the bureaucracy of procedures and the control of the economies of armed parties and the rest of the corruption mafias over all aspects of the public and private economy in the country."[/size]
[size=45]For his part, economic expert Nabil Al-Marsoumi explained that “unemployment in Iraq is increasing and not decreasing, due to the annual population growth of one million people, which means that about half a million individuals enter the labor market, which means that there is a need to create work spaces other than the government sector.”
He stated that “the high unemployment rates require a major national effort, as the unemployment rate has reached more than 35% of the youth in Iraq.”
Al-Marsoumi pointed out that “Iraq needs to diversify the Iraqi economy and identify productive commodity and service activities, by creating new activities that create job opportunities and employ youth, not to mention reactivating factories and plants that were shut down after the American occupation.”
There are no accurate statistics on the number of unemployed in the country, but the number is close to 5 million unemployed in a country that floats on oil. The reasons are many, including the lack of factories, institutions and departments that can accommodate these numbers that are increasing annually, with hundreds of thousands of young people graduating from colleges and institutes, in addition to the uneducated.[/size]
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