Shafaq News- Baghdad
More than 5,000 unemployed graduates poured into central Baghdad onMonday, demanding government jobs and inclusion in public sector hiring plansunder Iraq’s current federal budget, a source told Shafaq News.
The demonstration gathered in the al-Alawi district before expandingtoward Sahat al-Shawwaf in central Baghdad, disrupting traffic acrosssurrounding neighborhoods and forcing the closure of bridges linking theal-Karkh and al-Rusafa sides of the city.
The rally follows days after the newly formed government led by PrimeMinister Ali al-Zaidi issued a broad set of directives focused onanti-corruption measures, economic reform, digital transformation, andinstitutional restructuring.
Former Iraqi lawmaker and senior Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) figureMajid Shingali previously assessed that the country’s financial situationcannot sustain any further increase in state salaries and public-sector wages,pointing to the government’s continued failure to hire medical and healthgraduates from 2023, 2024, and 2025, with another graduating class expectedthis year.
