Local oil and gas workers in Iraq receive an average salary of nearly $22,000 per annum, the lowest in the sector worldwide.

Their foreign counterparts working in Iraq receive $94,800, according to a report from recruitment group Hays Oil & Gas.

Globally, oil and gas industry workers make an average of nearly $76,000 per year, with those in Australia making over $140,000.

(Source: Reuters)

Barham Salih, Prime Minister of Iraqi Kurdistan, said on Wednesday that the Region can employ an additional 25,000 people in 2011.

The declaration came at the sidelines of the International Symposium for Kurdistan Health System Reform, currently underway in Erbil, according to the report from AKnews.

The ministries of education and interior have priority for recruiting new staff, Salih said.

The Kurdistan Region’s deputy finance and economy minister, Rasheed Tahir had told AKnews in early January that Kurdistan can only recruit 10,000 staff in 2011.

The general budget of the country for 2011 is estimated to be around $79 billion, up from $71 billion in 2010. The Kurdistan Region is entitled to 17% of the total budget. The Iraqi budget is yet to be approved.

(Source: AKnews)

This year will see the creation of 171,000 new jobs, according to the latest ruling by the Iraqi parliament.

Azzaman reports that the new jobs are part of the government’s efforts to fight unemployment but officials say they will not alleviate unemployment in the country, which they estimate at more than 15%.

Iraq has one of the world’s most bloated public sectors, with the government being the single largest employer in the country.

Financing civil servants, the army and security forces devours more than two thirds of the Iraqi budget, which relies almost solely on oil revenues.

Only a fraction of factories and companies, particularly those owned by the private sector, are operational, mainly due to power shortages and the influx of cheap imports.

Up to 100,000 of the newly employed will join the ranks of Iraqi security forces. The remaining 71,000 will be employed by the country’s various ministries.

The Planning Ministry’s Undersecretary Mahdi al-Allak says government employment measures “are not sufficient”, adding that unemployment “has reached unprecedented levels in the country.”

“Unemployment indicators point to more than 15%, which means there are more than one million jobless people in Iraq,” Allak said.

He said besides those without a job, nearly 30% of Iraqis only worked occasionally “on irregular part-time basis.”

(Source: Azzaman)

Southern Iraq’s Grand Faw Port project, recently approved by the Council of Ministers, will provide employment opportunities for 150,000, according to the National Coalition on Sunday.

“The Grand Faw Terminal, approved by the Council of Ministers in 2004, is considered one of the most important projects that can achieve revenues in billions of dollars for Iraq, in addition to providing 120,000 temporary employment opportunities and 30,000 permanent opportunities,” Hussein al-Assadi told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

The Grand Faw Terminal project covers an area of 14.7 million square metres, with a depth ranging from 15 to 17 metres, with construction continuing until 2028. The project is being implemented by an Italian consortium, in cooperation with the Projects Implementation Company in the Ministry of Transportation, for an investment cost reaching 4 billion Euros.

(Source: Aswat al-Iraq)

Iraq’s Oil Ministry announced on Sunday that it has allocated $60m [72 billion Iraqi dinars] from the international licensing contracts sold this year to the development of technical skills amongst Iraqi employees working in the oil sector.

At a press conference in Basra, the training director of the ministry’s technical institute, Ali Rahim Fayyad, told AKnews that 50% of the budget will be used for training personnel working in the field, 25% will contribute to scholarships and internships abroad, and the remaining 25% will be spent improving infrastructure and training facilities.

Oil ministry spokesperson, Nihad Ahmed, said that the ministry will improve infrastructure, and establishing a new petroleum college and a school for drilling along with other specialized training centres.

The Director of Development in the Malaysian oil company Petronas, Mohammed Hashim, told AKnews that his company will work alongside the ministry to develop local engineers to international standards.

The first stage in the plan involves training those responsible for delivering the training program, then sending them abroad to gain experience on oil fields operating around the world.

The training is scheduled to begin early next year.

Iraq Business News carries news of employment opportunities in Iraq, much of it in the oil and gas sector.

(Source: AKnews)

The Baghdad Municipality is to build three major housing projects in the capital’s outskirts for low-income families.

Azzaman report that the projects, work on which is to start soon, will include 395,000 housing units and will be sold to low-income families at reduced prices, according to Hakeem Abedzahra, the municipality’s spokesman.

The first project of 65,000 housing units will cover the once sprawling al-Rashid military camp. A U.A.E. firm has won the contract for its construction, Abedzahra said.

He said Baghdad will soon become the scene of what he described as “a flurry of construction” that will employ tens of thousands of people.

The housing project at al-Rashid camp will include a medical city as well as sports facilities, he said.

The second project will be built close to the low-income township of Sadr City and will involve 75,000 housing units.

“More than 50 foreign firms offered bids to execute this project and we have now settled on eight of them,” Abedzahra said without elaborating.

He said work on Sadr City project was also to start soon.

The third project will be close to Ghazaliya neighborhood with 35,000 housing units, Abedzahra added.

The remainder, 220,000 housing units, will be built in outlying areas of the capital Baghdad, he said.

“This is a massive housing investment through which Baghdad will witness a major flurry of construction. Besides houses and flats there will hospitals, amenities, annexes and sports cities,” Abedzahra said.

(Source: Azzaman)

We launch our new Jobs in Iraq page today on the IBN web site in response to reader demand. This is a free reciprocal service for Recruitment Agencies and Employers with jobs on offer in Iraq. For readers it provides a welcome source of employment options in a country crying out for skilled labour and competent management.

Oil & Gas, Construction & Engineering, Public works, Agriculture , Education, Communications, and Transportation are all sectors where skilled people are needed.

If you have vacancies in Iraq contact Antony Wakeham on www.iraq-businessnews.com or email antony.wakeham@iraq-businessnews.com. The service is free on a reciprocal link basis.

The Baghdad Gate Housing Project will provide job opportunities, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said on Monday.

“This is a new stage, Iraq has become a workshop,” al-Maliki said at a ceremony held on the occasion of laying the project’s corner stone.

“All projects that have been agreed upon will be finalized within the coming years,” al-Maliki said.The project is expected to be finalized in three years, at a total cost of around $238 million.

( Aswat Al Iraq )