Slight improvement in unemployment
figures reported
By Khayoun
Saleh
Azzaman,
2005-01-02
The planning ministry reports a slight improvement in
unemployment figures in the country but at the same time warns the army of
jobless Iraqis is the main impediment to security.
“There has
been a tiny slump of about 1.3 percent in unemployment in last year’s fourth
quarter,” according to Suham Mohammed of the Central Statistics Bureau, the
ministry’s statistical arm.
Mohamed
said the bureau still does not have a “clear picture” of how many Iraqis are
exactly without jobs.
“We do not
have independent and objective counts regarding unemployment in the country,”
she said.
However,
she stressed unemployment rates were “extremely high”.
Non-government
organizations say unemployment could be as high as 65% in
Mohamed
said her bureau would not dispute the figure.
She said
future forecasts in a violent country like
“Any
tangible improvement hinges on stability and security. In the absence of
security, there will be little or no improvement,” she said.
Only the
return of stability, she said, would persuade donor countries to release the
billions of dollars they have pledged for Iraqi reconstruction.
Mohamed
said she sees no “quick end to the problem of joblessness in the country in the
near future.
“The
current conditions have halted major economic activities in the country which are
the main cause of unemployment,” she said.
Mohamed
said the country now has an army of unemployed university graduates.
Without
drastic transformations in the current government structure, most of Iraqi
university graduates, estimated at more than 50,000 a year, will find it almost
impossible to get a job.
The number
of graduates without jobs is mounting as only a few those who completed their
university studies in the past 15 years could find a decent job in
