ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Thousands of graduates from 15 Iraqi provinces gathered in Baghdad on Monday to demand employment opportunities, amid growing concerns about the government’s ability to sustain public sector hiring as the country’s oil revenues decline.
“We’re a lot. 150 thousand people. We have previously applied electronically as a census we’re old graduates from 2019 and 2020 and up until now. Some have graduated 18 and 15 years ago, and this is our 4th demonstration in Baghdad, our demonstration is peaceful,” a protester told Rudaw’s Ziyad Ismail.
The protester added that demonstrators are demanding the enforcement of the “job creation and replacement” law to ensure that vacancies are finally allocated to graduates who have been on the waiting list for years.
The demonstration comes amid mounting uncertainty over Iraq’s ability to finance public sector employment. Oil revenues account for more than 85 percent of government spending, including state salaries and public services in both federal Iraq and the Kurdistan Region.
“I have a lot of friends who have been employed; some of them have paid for it or have had mediation,” another protester said.
“When I graduated, I was single; now I have two children. If I'm old, what will I do with employment? I'm currently 32 years old; I don’t know when they want to employ us,” the protester added.
Iraqi oil exports saw a sharp decline following the outbreak of the US-Iran war that began in late February, which disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic waterway through which around 90 percent of Iraq’s oil exports pass.
At their lowest point, Iraqi oil exports dropped to 18.6 million barrels in March, generating about $1.96 billion in revenue, compared with more than 99 million barrels and $6.81 billion in February, according to figures from Iraq’s oil ministry.
The International Labor Organization (ILO), a United Nations agency, estimated in a 2021 report that Iraq’s unemployment rate stood at approximately 16.2 percent.
However, Abdul Zahra al-Hindawi, spokesperson for Baghdad’s planning ministry, said in late April that Iraq’s unemployment rate has declined to 13 percent, while poverty stands at 17.5 percent.
