Iraq’s young covet govt jobs

Decent salaries and stability are the hallmarks of a job in Iraq's civil service, an institution much coveted by young graduates, even as it starves the private sector and hobbles the economy.

The patronage systems that feed the public sector in the oil-rich but war-battered nation are so entrenched that even the outgoing finance minister has despaired of ever trimming them down to size.

We want work!

It's a refrain that fresh graduates chant each year on the streets of the southern city of Nassiriyah.

Maitham Mohammed Redha, 32, is among them. Public sector jobs are "our legitimate right", he says, adding that he has personally lobbied the provincial governor for work because he doesn't have "wasta", or an inside connection.

His situation is mirrored across Iraq, a country of 42 million in which four out of 10 young people are unemployed and where the state is by far the biggest employer.

Propped up by oil production, which accounts for 90 percent of national revenues, young Iraqis view public sector jobs as a refuge against the political winds and insecurity that perpetually batter businesses.

The lure is such that the private sector is robbed of bright young talent, as the smartest tend to opt for a largely unproductive easy ride in government service.

"Graduates, if they start working in the private sector, consider it a temporary job until they can find an opportunity in the public sector," said Maha Kattaa, Iraq country coordinator for the International Labour Organization.

"The private sector feels it cannot compete with the advantages, benefits provided by the public sector," she added.

Mohammed al-Obeidi, who has worked for nearly two decades at a ministry, acknowledges that "the salaries are good".

"Some ministries have good benefits" and the option to retire at 60 -- or even as young as 55 -- provides scope for early retirees to take on private sector work while also drawing their pension.

Vain populism

Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi has repeatedly stressed the need to trim the public sector.

He noted last summer that "previous governments have... inflated public sector jobs in a vain populism that has exhausted the Iraqi economy".

Between 2004 -- the year after a US-led invasion toppled longtime dictator Saddam Hussein -- and 2019, the number of civil service posts quadrupled, he said.

The public sector wage bill alone accounts for two-thirds of the state budget, he said, while Kattaa estimated the government employs nearly 40 percent of Iraq's population of working age.

Such numbers are "among the highest... in the world", she told AFP.