Volume 1 Cedric - revised luca Final - RUIG-GIAN

UnemploymentThe unemployment situation Iraq is going through today is a legacy of the previousregime's failure to develop and diversify the heavily oil-dependent national economy, andof the diversion of almost all of the country's resources, including human capital, tomilitary adventures.Lack of employment opportunities, as the Oxford international opinion pollindicates, 67 is the second foremost source of dissatisfaction in the country after insecurity.The ability particularly for the youth to engage in self-employment and entrepreneurship istherefore crucial to channelling aspirations into productive and positive undertakings.The unemployment crisis is saddled with the slow progress of the two non- mutuallyexclusive transition processes: constructing a free market economy and rebuildingdemocratic political institutions. Furthermore, acts of insurgency still seriously hinder anysound national action plan to tackle unemployment. In the context of economic reformsand transition, the private sector has the key role in the economic recovery and the longerterm sustainable development of the country.Obtaining labour market data proved to be problematic. The latest most reliableoffic ial employment data was provided by the Central Statistical office (CSO) in the1997 68 population censuses.Table 4: Labour force breakdown by employment sector (1997)Economic activity thousands %Agriculture, hunting & fishing 950 19.5Mining & quarrying 31 0. 6Manufacturing industries 219 4.5Electricity & water 28 0.6Building & construction 218 4.5Transport, communication & storage 904 18.6Wholesale & retail trade, hotels &accomodation273 5.6Finance, insurance & real estate 40 0.8Social & personal services 1373 28.2Unemployed 812 16.7Not specified 12 0.2Source: CSO, Censuses of Population 1997Total 2862 100A post-war sample survey in 2003 was carried out by the CSO in association withMoLSA to measure unemployment and under-employment in Iraq. The cohort method wasused with non-survey methods to derive total employment estimates. The survey tookplace in October 2003 over ten days. It involved 24,900 households accounting for153,384 people of age 6 and above. This survey covered 15 Governorates of Iraq, whileKurdistan was not included). A review of the survey results are as follows:67 The Iraq Multiple Indicator Rapid Assessment (IMIRA), Amman review meeting 9/10 2004.68 Iraq historically conducts general population censuses every 10 years on the seventh year of each decade since1937.57