The miserable situation
of the Iraqi people under the corrupt Shiite regime have stirred anger of many
Iraqis. They said that the growing unemployment, and poverty reflected a major
failure to manage Iraq's resources for 16 years, since the fall of Saddam
Hussein's regime.
Youth
make up around 60 percent of Iraq's nearly 40 million people. Now, with ISIS
defeated, co-working spaces and incubators are flourishing in a country whose unemployment rate hovers around 10 percent but
whose public sector is too bloated to hire, Phys Org reported.
After graduating from university, many youths are waiting to be appointed in the government, Iraq's biggest employer. Four out of five jobs created
in Iraq in recent years are in the public sector, according to the World Bank.
And in
its 2019 budget, the government proposed $52 billion in salaries, pensions, and social
security for its workers—a 15 percent jump from 2018 and more than half
the total budget.
But with graduates entering the workforce faster than jobs are created, many
still wait indefinitely for work.
Among
youth, 17 percent of men and a whopping 27 percent of women are unemployed, the
World Bank says.
Poverty rates
Poverty among Iraqi
citizens may have increased the feeling of disloyalty to the country and the
desire to stay away of it.
Borgen Project has
published last year 10 facts about poverty in Iraq:
With widespread
insecurity since 2014, Iraq is in a state of humanitarian crisis with 10
million people in need and more than 3 million internally displaced persons.
According to the
World Bank, “the standard of living has deteriorated and a noticeable share of
the population has fallen into poverty or is extremely vulnerable to falling
into poverty.” In 2014, poverty reached 22.5 percent nationwide.
The
ISIS-affected government has created social, economic and security disruptions,
all of which deeply impact poverty in Iraq. This violence has increased civilian mortality
and left parts of the country outside of government control, incidents that
then have lead to massive internal displacement.
Ninety-five percent
of Iraq’s exports are from oil. Despite this wealth, Iraq’s weak government and
chronic political unrest have caused the country’s poverty rate to
drop to 18.9 percent.
Population
contributes to the amount of those living below the poverty line. Iraq’s population
tripled between 1970 and 2007 and today it stands at approximately 34
million; by 2030, it is expected to grow to almost 50 million.
Oil revenues
have usurped investments in education, health systems and critical
infrastructure. This shift has caused a lack of diversification within the
economy by enabling the private sector to grow and create jobs.
The quality of
water and sanitation infrastructure significantly affects community health,
particularly levels of observed malnutrition. Although connection to the public
water supply is common, reliability in water delivery is not. Most households
have to supplement their water supply from secondary sources such as tanker
trucks or open wells.
Only 9 percent
of the poor and 13 percent of the non-poor report a stable supply of water from
the public system. Nearly a third reports daily interruptions, and another
third reports weak supply or interruptions more than once a week.
Homeownership
among the poor is 82 percent, which is higher than homeownership among the
non-poor, which is around 78 percent. This difference is due to the likelihood
that the poor live in rural areas where homeownership is relatively high
compared to urban areas.
Seventy-one
percent of Iraqis live in urban areas, and 51 percent of Iraqi households
are crowded, some with as many as 10 people living in one home. Crowding is
particularly severe among the poor, lying at 81 percent compared to the 44
percent of the non-poor. Fourteen percent of poor live in homes with dirt
floors, while only 3 percent of the non-poor.
