Employment Iraq sets ambitious unemployment target By Nadim Kawach February 24, 2025, 10:50 AM Reuters/Alaa Al-Marjani Craftsmen making traditional ceramic tiles in the holy city of Karbala, Iraq. Unemployment stood at around 16.5 percent in 2023 Government aims for 4 percent Non-oil sector a priority Plan for new SMEs bank The Iraqi government, which faces re-election later this year, has set ambitious targets to slash double-digit unemployment despite previous attempts foundering due to persistent instability. Mudhar Saleh, an adviser to prime minister Mohammed Al-Sudani, told the official Iraqi news agency last week that the government wants to gradually cut the jobless figure “from a double-digit rate to a single-digit rate” of 4 percent. Saleh claimed that the industrial sector can absorb 60 percent of unemployment. Saleh, who last week announced plans to reform Iraq’s troubled banking sector, said Iraq’s 2024-2028 development plan targets growth in the non-oil sector of 5 percent as part of economic diversification efforts. He said that the government is considering creating a new bank that will focus on small and medium-sized projects. “There is also a plan to create a sovereign credit guarantee committee which will support the industrial sector through loans to be provided by Western and Japanese banks. These loans will be guaranteed by the state of Iraq, which will bear 85 percent of the loan costs,” Saleh said. Planning ministry figures released in 2023 showed the joblessness in Iraq stood at around 16.5 percent but was as high as 36 percent among those aged 15-24 years. Iraq’s fiscal policy under fire over record domestic debt Two new LNG terminals in Iraq to replace Iran gas Iraq awards another major project in housing drive The rate largely varies among the country’s 18 governorates, with Nineveh in the north recording the highest rate of 33 percent in 2023. Iraq’s high unemployment is aggravated by the population growth rate. At the end of last year, the population was estimated at around 44 million. The planning ministry forecasts that it will increase to nearly 51 million at the end of 2030, an annual increase of over 2 percent. Although Iraq controls the world’s fifth largest proven oil deposits, its GDP per capita remains below that in its Gulf neighbours, standing at only a little over $4,000 in constant terms, according to the World Bank.
