Zaidi orders jobs for long-term graduates in prospective budget bill

BAGHDAD — Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi has told the Finance Ministry to allocate government jobs or contract positions for long-term graduates in the draft federal budget, after months of protests over public sector employment.

Posts should be included on the basis of what ministries and government bodies actually need, his media office said, with particular attention to people who graduated years ago and are still without a government job.

Iraq has no 2026 budget. The next bill must reach parliament by Oct. 15 under the Financial Management Law, and the Finance Ministry is still drafting its strategy. The government halved what it spends on everything but wages last month and paid July salaries in stages, up to 50 days late.

The directive follows months of demonstrations. Thousands marched from Alawi toward the Green Zone on Aug. 17, blocking entrances and halting traffic at Sinak Bridge, in what protesters said was their sixth demonstration without an adequate response, having gathered in thousands at Shawaf Park on May 18. In Basra, engineering, petroleum and science graduates began an open-ended sit-in outside the Basra Oil Company on Aug. 30 seeking contracts with state oil companies, later blocking several facilities, with security forces detaining participants on Sept. 2. Medical graduates protested outside the Finance Ministry in August 2024 over more than 30,000 posts they said remained unfilled from that year’s budget, with more than 14 reported injured in confrontations with riot police.