Iraq
Protestors holding signs and demanding employment in Baghdad on May 18, 2026. Photo: Screengrab / Rudaw
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Thousands of protesters and university graduates from across Iraq took to the streets on Monday, seeking to draw attention from the new government and demanding legislation to create jobs for graduates from previous years.
Protests were held in the western Anbar, eastern Diyala, northern Kirkuk, and central Salahaddin provinces. Demonstrators also gathered in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, where they rallied under the scorching sun and registered their names and personal information to be submitted to the Iraqi parliament.
“I ranked second in my institute with an average score of 93, and so far, nothing has been done for me,” said Maryam Jassim, a graduate from an institute in Diyala’s Khanaqin district who has yet to find employment despite her academic achievement.
The graduates’ demands come as Iraq’s new government has recently been formed, with protesters calling for job creation measures to be prioritized in the federal budget law and for greater public sector employment opportunities as unemployment rates stand at 13.5 percent, according to official figures.
The graduates’ demands come as Iraq’s new government has recently been formed, with protesters urging authorities to prioritize job creation in the federal budget law and expand public sector employment opportunities.
Baghdad’s planning ministry spokesperson, Abdul Zahra al-Hindawi, in mid-April told Rudaw that Iraq’s unemployment rate had declined to 13 percent.
Nonetheless, Omar Ahmed, a demonstrator from the oil-rich province of Kirkuk, told Rudaw, “I graduated in 2018-2019. Seven years have passed since I earned a degree in a field that is in demand around the world - unfortunately, except in Iraq, where there is no planning.”
“We are told there are no jobs available, yet hundreds and thousands of people have been hired in [government] institutions. How is that? Through money and bribery? We reject this,” said another demonstrator, Khalil Mohammed.
Meanwhile, Hawra Abdul Hussein, an engineering graduate, said, “From 2020 until now, in 2026, I have not had a single job opportunity, either in the private sector or the public sector.”
Similarly, Ammar Youssef, a representative of protesters in Anbar province, said the province has “150,000 bachelor’s and diploma graduates from all specializations.”
Successive Iraqi leaders in post-2003 Iraq have relied on mass public-sector hiring to secure political support, ease public anger, and prevent unrest, often prioritizing short-term political stability over long-term economic reform.
Former Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki (2006 - 2014) used rising oil revenues between 2008 and 2010 to hire hundreds of thousands of state employees. The strategy helped his political bloc secure major gains in the 2010 and 2014 elections.
Similarly, outgoing Iraqi prime minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani (2022 - 2026) faced criticism during his tenure for adding between 370,000 and 500,000 new public-sector jobs. His electoral alliance, the Reconstruction and Development Coalition, won more than 1.3 million votes and secured 46 seats in Iraq’s 329-member parliament in the November 2025 legislative ballot.
A late-2022 report by the Iraq Future Foundation found that Iraq ranks first globally in public-sector dominance of the labor market, with government employees making up 37 percent of the country’s total workforce. Out of a population of roughly 42 million people, around seven million receive state salaries, many of them reportedly employed through clientelist networks.
Ziyad Ismael contributed to this report from Baghdad.
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