Writer: Asist. Lecture Kamela Abdul Wahed Hadi Al Husseini 10th October 2019 Crisis management department Translated by: Hiba Abbas Mohammed Ali Reviewed by: Lecturer. Hussain Bassim Abdulameer
The Iraqi economy is facing many economic, social and political problems that negatively affect its growth and development. Unemployment is one of the most important problems, as many graduates suffer after completing their studies due to the lack of employment opportunities for appointment in the state departments since state institutions suffer from slouch in their cadres. In addition, the job opportunities in the private sector are limited compared to the large and continuous increase in the supply of labor, the low demand in the labor market, along with the low wages provided by the private sector institutions. There are also other reasons for the high levels of unemployment in Iraq, including the dumping of goods resulting from the entry of large quantities of goods into the country at cheap prices that compete with the local industry and caused to freeze factories and workers and then close many Iraqi factories and layoffs. In order to combat this phenomenon, economists stress the need to support the private sector to eliminate unemployment, because it is impossible for the public sector alone to absorb this number. There are other reasons that led to the current situation and exacerbated this problem, including the lack of planning and coordination between the outputs of educational institutions (graduates) and the labor force available in the market (the quantity of labor supply) and jobs available within the government and private sector (quantity required) In the labor market. So, if we not direct the budget in the write way to establishing investment projects that would creat new jobs or supporting the private sector and establishing mixed institutions that would provide an opportunity for graduates to work in these institutions and the absence of such investment projects and directions by the government to attract graduates and eliminate unemployment, as well as, In recent years, the Iraqi labor market has attracted many different nationalities most of them are non- arabic, if Commercial centers, private sector establishments, shops and homes were filled with workers, mostly from Bangladesh, and their numbers are constantly increasing because that the employers contract with them for their simplicity, commitment and extreme discipline, In spite of some legal obstacles that the government started to put in place recently in order to control the entry of expatriate workers, the pace of their arrival is increasing, Iraqis are accustomed to seeing them in public places and dealing with them normally, especially since most of the expatriates have learned Arabic and the contact with them has become easy. And that many owners of companies and employment offices prefer the foreign worker over the Iraqi because Lack of wages and increase the number of hours of work relative to the Iraqi worker, who was not used to practice some professions rarely such as domestic work and raising children and others. Economists think that the increasing dependence on foreign labor is the cause of the widespread phenomenon of unemployment in Iraq, which increased significantly after 2003, these cheap labor has become a favorite in the labor market and the Iraqi economy suffers from chronic unemployment, which is difficult to solve only through direct and effective state intervention by legalizing the introduction of foreign labor to Iraq. According to the impact of unemployment on the economy by allowing the introducing of foreign labor in the labor market in iraq, it has had a significant impact in the depletion of foreign exchange resources in the country and transfer it from iraq to those countries that export manpower as a result of converting the salaries of foreign workers to foreign exchange, and if the economy not lose these high prices every year the foreign exchange will increasing, The increasing turnover caused by the large influx of labor has caused the weakening of the national currency and the scarcity of foreign exchange, which has led to economic problems plaguing the country so far. all these reasons were motivated the graduates not to work in the private sector but seek to work in the government sector waiting for the allocation of functional grades for them within the budgets and holding sitins and demonstrations in front of the ministries and parliament for the purpose of appointing them . The best solution to avoid these problems is to formulate the competent authorities strict laws to reduce the flow of cheap foreign labor to Iraq, as well as the allocation of part of the public budgets to invest and establish productive projects that will provide jobs for the unemployed as well as the intervention of the Trade Union to provide employment opportunities to run local manpower. http://kerbalacss.uokerbala.edu.iq/wp/blog/2019/10/31/مستويات-البطالة-المرتفعة-في-الاقتصاد/
