62% of Iraq’s 4 million state employees work in security sector, planning minister says

BAGHDAD — Acting Planning Minister Khaled Battal said Wednesday that 62% of Iraq’s nearly 4 million state employees work in the security and military sectors, warning that much of the remaining workforce reflects “quantity rather than quality.”

“The number of employees in Iraq is close to 4 million, 62% of whom are within the security and military apparatuses, while many in the remaining percentage represent quantity rather than quality, which requires a real review of quality,” Battal said at the first scientific conference on addressing unemployment and poverty in Iraq.

He said Iraq is approaching a demographic dividend stage that will place growing pressure on the labor market as population growth accelerates, with estimates suggesting the population will reach around 73 million by 2050. “The public sector has limited capacity to absorb the increasing numbers of the workforce,” he said, calling for coordination between the ministries of planning, higher education and labor to improve policy responses.

Final results from Iraq’s 2025 population census confirmed the country has entered the demographic dividend phase, in which the working-age population reaches its peak relative to dependents. People aged 15 to 64 number 27.875 million, representing 60.4% of the population, according to Planning Minister Mohammed Tamim.

Battal described the conference as “a national platform for joint dialogue between relevant parties,” saying interconnected problems of poverty and unemployment “require in-depth analysis and reconsideration of the reality of the government sector.”