Public sector employment policies are not the meaningless folly that some might think. Because in many ways it is the easiest way for the state to spread the country’s wealth, which comes mainly in the form of oil revenues. However it is also a policy that is damaging in the long term and leads to the rentier economy syndrome.
This system becomes more entrenched all the time. The Kurdish government is already the largest employer in Kurdistan region; in July local media announced that this year in Kurdistan, 18,000 new public sector jobs had been created. Locals almost take these jobs for granted and if they don’t get a government-supplied job, they demonstrate on the street.
Which is why state jobs are also, and have been in the past, part of a deliberate attempt to make the Iraqi people dependent on the state. Public dissatisfaction with their government’s performance and the lack of movement in private sector development leads the state to use their ability to employ just about everybody, to keep a lid on that discontent.
An exit strategy out of this kind of labour policy will be very tough. As the state sector has grown, the Iraqi public expect more and more jobs in the public sector will be created. They don’t understand that this is just not sustainable.
In the process this has also led to a large, unproductive and unskilled workforce – which is something that both local and international private businesses have often complained about. Sometimes it feels like Iraq’s workforce is becoming less skilled by the day.
And the strain is starting to show on the government’s budgets. Moreover the biggest time bomb is actually the Kurdish and Iraqi workforce, which has learned that it can have something for nothing – and indeed, which expects that.
Comments are closed.