ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the development of human resources in Iraq, taking a mediumto long-term view. The distribution of employment in Iraq in 1968 clearly reflected the dominance of agricultural employment. A unique aspect of development in oil-rich states like Iraq is their pattern of employment growth. Despite the buoyant state of the economy, soaring oil revenues and rapid economic development, not to mention the invaluable asset of a large population and more than sufficient cultivable land area, Iraq lives with a number of deep-rooted problems, some of which are political, some economic. Indeed, from the perspective of economic development and employment-creation, Iraq's war with Iran is a disaster. The 1977 census constitutes a good basis for establishing the size and composition of the Iraqi population. The census does, however, suffer from one fault which is common in such censuses carried out in developing countries: certain groups are under-enumerated.
