Most Iraqi men of working age covet government jobs as they have higher pay and longer tenure than private ones.
Mohammed al-Obeidi, who has worked for nearly two decades at a ministry, added that government employment has good benefits, Agence France-Presse reported.
Iraqis already employed in private companies still transfer to public jobs when the opportunity comes, Maha Kattaa, Iraq country coordinator for the International Labor Organization, told AFP.
Consequently, the state is the biggest employer in Iraq. It employs nearly 40 percent of the workforce and spend two-thirds of the national budget for civil servants’ wage.
In India, people also desire to be in the civil service for the same reasons.
When Rakesh Kumar, 30, was appointed as a primary teacher in a public school in the Barkurwa district of Bihar State last month, his village of Sohagpur celebrated. Residents distributed sweets and smeared colored powder in joy, according to BBC.
The son of a grocery store owner told BBC that he feels elated to have made his village proud and to have fulfilled his late father’s wish.
The celebration, however, is much more for the security and benefits Kumar expects to get from his teaching job. It was for his historic feat of becoming the first Sohagpur native to be employed by a local school since India gained independence from Great Britain in 1947, according to BBC. All other public school teachers in Sohagpur are residents of other parts of Bihar since 75 years ago.