clear

Creating new perspectives since 2009

Iraq: 22.6% of under 30s are unemployed

August 23, 2018 at 12:34 pm

Iraqi men in the district of Fallujah, Iraq [Hqmc.marines]

Some 22.6 per cent of 15-29-year-olds in Iraq are unemployed, the majority are women, the Ministry of Planning revealed today.

“The rate of unemployment among young people between the ages of 15 and 29 is 22.6 per cent, 56.3 per cent of whom are women,” the ministry’s central statistics agency said in a statement seen by the Anadolu Agency.

“The rate of youth participation in the labour force is 36.1 per cent,” the agency added.

In May the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said that Iraq’s youth unemployment rate had reached more than 40 per cent.

High unemployment and increasing government corruption have led thousands to take to the streets to demand the government take action and improve living conditions.

Read: Camel traders in Iraq’s Erbil do brisk business for Eid