Baghdad / NINA / – The European Union Mission to Iraq confirmed that creating decent job opportunities for all Iraqis is a central goal of its cooperation with Iraq.
The Head of the Economic Cooperation Department at the European Union Mission to Iraq, Barbara Ebger, said, during the official announcement of the launch of the “Mihan” platform to employ workers in the private sector, today, Wednesday, in the center of the capital Baghdad, that “representatives of sectors and societal segments, including agricultural and household groups, chambers of commerce, the private sector and community organizations and the Parliamentary Strategic Planning Committee, we are meeting together today to launch this interactive platform “Mihan”, which represents an important achievement for all Iraqis and represents an important milestone in our cooperation with Iraq.
She explained, “For the European Union, as well as Europe and all members of the EU, a central goal of our cooperation with Iraq is to create decent job opportunities for all Iraqis, especially the youth, and the quality of work remains one of the main joints by supporting the capabilities of the worker.”
She added, “There are many great challenges in Iraq, and we agree that one of the most dangerous risks to social stability is the lack of job opportunities for Iraqi youth, and this is a major driver of irregular migration to the European Union,” noting that “Iraq over the past years has witnessed a continuous increase in unemployment rates and the lack of employment and little participation in the labor market in the country, which is dominated by an informal and unorganized private sector, so this affects the democratic path in Iraq, where there are more than 300 young people entering the labor market annually.
She continued to say, “The Iraqi labor market surveys that were conducted by the Central Statistical Organization in cooperation with the International Labor Organization and financial support by the European Union, draw the situation for the Iraqi labor market in 2022.”
Whereas, the population rate compared to employment indicated effectively that the Iraqi economy provides jobs for people who wish to work and it represented 33%, which is considered very little compared to neighboring countries and similar to Iraq as the percentage is approximately 60% for them, and this translates to the high rate of unemployment as well as for Iraqi youth, who constitutes 36%.
The European official expressed the concern of European Union members about the high unemployment among Iraqi women, which represents 62%, and “we realize that the continuous economic shocks of the previous years have exacerbated the problem and also had a negative role in structuring the problems of the Iraqi economy and oil.”/ End
Source: National Iraqi News Agency