STORY: Young Iraqis struggle to find jobs amid continued chaos, conflicts
DATELINE: June 28, 2023
LENGTH: 00:02:21
LOCATION: Baghdad
CATEGORY: ECONOMY

SHOTLIST:
1. various of Yad al-Rajaa Company in Baghdad
2. SOUNDBITE 1 (Arabic): SAAD AL-KHATTAB, Owner of Yad al-Rajaa Company
3. various of asian workers working in a sweats shop in Baghdad
4. various of the Iraqi Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs
5. SOUNDBITE 2 (Arabic): ABBAS FADEL, Deputy director general, Labor and Vocational Training Department of Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs
6. various of the Iraqi Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs

STORYLINE:

Every year, thousands of students graduate from universities across Iraq, searching for an opportunity in the labor market, yet the country's sluggish economy offers little hope.

Iraq has been suffering from a severe unemployment problem since the U.S. invasion in 2003. The continued chaos and conflicts that swept the country in the past 20 years have not only hindered successive governments from properly addressing the problems of social security and economic development but also stunted the private sector that provides the most jobs.

The Iraqi Ministry of Planning said that the poverty rate in the country was 25 percent in 2022. For the past decade, official unemployment rates have seen a continuous rise in Iraq.

In 2022, the national unemployment rate stood at 16.5 percent, while it was close to 36 percent among young people, according to the International Labour Organization.

Despite the job crisis, many Iraqi businessmen tend to hire foreigners from South Asian or African countries who are satisfied with lower wages rather than locals or university graduates who hold higher education degrees.

In addition to wages, there are other reasons for preferring foreign workers. In the two decades since the Iraq War, social unrest and underinvestment in the vocational education system have led to a lack of skills or professionalism among the younger generation of Iraqis.

SOUNDBITE 1 (Arabic): SAAD AL-KHATTAB, Owner of Yad al-Rajaa Company
"Of course, it is supposed to be that Iraqi labor is the first in this field, and the foreign labor that comes from abroad affects the opportunities (of Iraqi labor). But the truth is that it (foreign labor) is required. Illegal labor is a burden on legal labor, whether local or non-local (foreign). When labor enters illegally, it affects the labor market and also affects the salaries of workers, and even affects the country's economy."

Corruption is seen as one of the main reasons for various social problems in Iraq, including the chronicle high-unemployment rate. Poverty, unemployment, and lack of public services drove tens of thousands of angry Iraqis into mass anti-government protests for months in 2019, demanding comprehensive reform to combat the corruption.

SOUNDBITE 2 (Arabic): ABBAS FADEL, Deputy director general, Labor and Vocational Training Department of Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs
"Certainly, there is an impact on local labor and competition for local labor in the labor market, but the Iraqi government is serious about addressing this issue after the recent cabinet decision, which approved achieving 50 percent of local employment in front of foreign labor. And we in the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, through the Department of Labor and Vocational Training and through the field teams, have obligated most employers in investment projects and oil projects to achieve this percentage in order to raise the ceiling of local employment in the labor market. More than 4,000 companies have been referred to the labor courts for violating Article 30 of employing unlicensed foreign workers in the labor market."

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Baghdad.
(XHTV)