Hundreds of Iraqi university graduates staged a protest on Tuesday in Baghdad’s Al-Alawi district, demanding job opportunities and permanent government employment amid rising unemployment rates.

According to a Shafaq News correspondent, demonstrators carried banners criticizing the lack of employment prospects for young Iraqis, saying that years of education have failed to translate into stable jobs. Protesters held successive governments responsible for what they described as the absence of effective strategies to absorb graduates into the labor market.

The demonstrators called on authorities to accelerate recruitment procedures and ensure fair and transparent hiring, warning that protests could escalate if their demands continue to be ignored.

The protest comes as unemployment remains a major challenge in Iraq. The Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs reported on Monday that nearly one million Iraqis are registered as unemployed, with youth unemployment standing at approximately 32 percent.

At the same time, the public sector remains the country’s largest employer, absorbing nearly 40 percent of the workforce. A 2025 report by the Ministry of Finance showed that public sector wages reached about 55 trillion Iraqi dinars (around $42 billion), accounting for almost half of the government’s current spending of 106.75 trillion dinars (approximately $81 billion). The figures underscore Iraq’s heavy fiscal dependence on state employment, amid limited job creation in the private sector.