Iraqi
Unemployment Rate Reaches 70%
By Ahmed Janabi
26 July, 2004
Aljazeera
A
study by the college of economics at Baghdad University has found that
the unemployment rate in Iraq is 70%.
The study says the
problem of high unemployment is going from bad to worse, with the security
situation deterioriating and the reconstruction process faltering.
Private employment
agencies - a new phenomenon in post-Saddam Iraq - are cropping up across
the country and advertising their "services" through the mass
media.
Promising job opportunities
in Libya and Arab Gulf states, these advertisements have aroused a mixture
of interest, distrust and resentment.
Long queues of Iraqis
can be seen every morning outside the advertisers' offices, carrying
their CVs and the $50 application fee.
Guidelines introduced
by the private employment offices state that every applicant must pay
$50, with just half the amount refundable should the agency fail to
get the applicant a job .
Easy money
Abd Al-Hamid Abd,
a Baghdad resident, said he submitted his application despite warnings
from his friends.
"All the people
I know who have applied said they were contacted and told that their
applications were unsuccessful," he said.
"They suspected
that keeping 50% of the applicants' fees was the main objective of the
agencies, but I applied anyway. I have to believe in anyone who offers
me hope."
Several residents
of Baghdad told Aljazeera.net they had heard of employment agencies
offering jobs within Iraq, but not outside the country.
In most cases, these
offices offer jobs with the US occupation authorities and companies
linked to them. Some Iraqis have no problems working for the Americans,
while others reject the idea.
"I was offered
more than four jobs, but all of them were either with US forces and
authorities, or with companies associated with them. I cannot work in
these positions," Nasrin al-Agha of Baghdad said.
"Not everyone
is willing to risk his life for the sake of making a living. What do
my children gain if I am killed in one of those attacks on a US installation?"
Dilemma
Ala al-Qaisi, 56,
a father of three who fought in the Iran-Iraq war, expressed disappointment
with the fact that all the jobs seemed to be in the hands of the US
authorities.
"I cannot accept
a job with the US authorities or a company which supplies them. I care
about my image in the eyes of my children. After defending Iraq for
eight years, how can I accept work with a country that is militarily
occupying the country I fought for?"
"I cannot see
my children starve. If those who are claiming to be patriotic really
care for us, let them pay us salaries and we will not go to work with
the
US occupation"
Lamya al-Tahir,
a resident of Baghdad
Lamya al-Tahir, a 48-year-old engineer, offered a different perspective.
She said working with the foreigners to earn a living did not necessarily
mean treason.
"My husband's
salary covers less than half of our needs. How can we feed our children?
I cannot see my children starve. If those who are claiming to be patriotic
really care for us, let them pay us salaries and we will not go to work
with the US occupation," she said.
The number of people
out of work in Iraq has been on the rise since the then US administrator
Paul Bremer disbanded the Iraqi army, security organisations and the
Ministry of Information - a decision that made hundreds of thousands
of people unemployed at the stroke of a pen.