Iraqis Grapple With High Unemployment

Iraqi men fill out job applications at a weekend job fair in Baghdad's Zawara park, Saturday, July 7, 2007, where 4,000 people went to give their resumes to 25 Iraqi companies and several international businesses. Most of the companies work off contracts from the U.S. or the Iraqi government, highlighting the fact that such contracts, rather than private Iraqi investment, remain the strongest engine in Iraq's economy. (AP Photo/ Adil Al-Khazali) (Adil Al-khazali - AP)

BAGHDAD -- Ali Ahmed is living "the garden life," as a new bit of Iraqi slang puts it. Two years after earning his engineering degree, the 27-year-old is among Iraq's teeming numbers of jobless with nothing to do but hang out in Baghdad's parks.

Frustrated, Ahmed says his 16 years of study were "a big mistake" and that he should have dropped out long ago to get a more menial job.

"I was dreaming to be a governmental employee or working in the private sector, but I realized later that these were only dreams," said the electrical engineering graduate from Iraq's University of Technology.

Iraq's soaring unemployment rate is estimated at 60 to 70 percent, and attempts to lower it are caught in a bloody Catch-22.

Joblessness helps fuel the country's insurgency, since idle young men can be lured into the ranks of militant groups _ but that same instability is hampering rebuilding efforts and economic growth that could generate more jobs.

Some 4,000 people _ mainly young _ crowded a weekend job fair in Baghdad's Zawara park, where 25 Iraqi companies and several international businesses were taking resumes.

Most of the companies work off contracts from the U.S. or the Iraqi government, highlighting the fact that such contracts _ rather than private Iraqi investment _ remain the strongest engine in Iraq's economy.

"We believe that when we ensure a good life for people, the security situation will be gradually improved," said Eng. Ali Jamil Latif, head of the Baghdad Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which helped organize Sunday's job fair along with local district council in Baghdad's western region of Karkh.

"Even if we achieve 30 percent success with this fair, we will consider it a step forward," he said.

The companies at the fair did not say how many jobs they were looking to fill _ but most were on the lookout for engineers and other professionals for construction contracts. And they were looking to recruit from the neighborhoods where the projects are being carried out to prevent workers from having to take dangerous roads to the work sites.

That way, they "will be safe from attacks and will protect what they did for their neighborhood," said Ramzi al-Shamari, president of the Iraqi Target Contracting and General Trading Co., which is carrying out renovations on schools, sewage and water infrastructure in Karkh.

Some 1,200 people at the job fair submitted resumes to his company. Al-Shamari said the number of hires depends on the amount of his firm's contracts.