ANALYSIS OF THE FACTORS AFFECTING THE UNEMPLOYMENT RATE IN IRAQ

Abstract

Unemployment is one of the main and important topics for the economic and social development of any society; its danger lies in increasing the number of unemployed, wasting the energies of the human element, and creating an environment conducive to poverty. Hence, the present study examines the impact of economic factors such as gross domestic product (GDP), inflation, population growth, and public expenditures on unemployment in Iraq. The study gathered secondary data from World Development Indicators (WDI) from 1991 to 2020. The article also used the Autoregressive Distributed Lag Model (ARDL) to test the association among the variables. The outcomes indicated that GDP and public expenditures are negative, while inflation and population growth positively affect unemployment. The study guides the policymakers in making the policies related to reduce unemployment by increasing GDP and public expenditures and by reducing inflation and population growth.