01 / OVERVIEW
Work without a safety net?
A descriptive look at vulnerable employment estimates by sex in Iraq from 1991 through 2025.
DATA NOTE / 01IRAQ · 1991–2025
Work withouta safety net?
A descriptive look at vulnerable employment estimates by sex, using the ILO modelled series published through the World Bank.
BACK TO RESEARCH↙ECONOMICS / LABOUR / IRAQDATA NOTE · SOURCES · LIMITATIONS
01 / THE DATAWORLD DEVELOPMENT INDICATORS · ILOEST
A DESCRIPTIVE DATA NOTE
Vulnerable work has declined over the full series. The gap by sex remains.
35 ANNUAL OBSERVATIONS · 1991–2025The World Bank’s 2025 ILO modelled estimate places vulnerable employment at 36.1% of employed women and 26.0% of employed men, a difference of about 10 percentage points. The total rate falls from 35.4% in 1991 to 27.1% in 2025. These are descriptive estimates, not evidence that any one policy or event caused the change.
Vulnerable employment, 1991–2025
Share of employed people in each group. Female and male series use their respective employment totals; the total series uses all employment.
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IRAQ / VULNERABLE EMPLOYMENT01 / 07
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What does “vulnerable employment” count?
The indicator is the share of employed people who are either own-account workers without employees or contributing family workers. Those two groups are often less likely to have formal work arrangements or social protection.
It can help describe employment status. It does not count every informal job and it is not an estimate of the full size of Iraq’s shadow economy.
How to read the trend
The total estimate falls by about 8.2 percentage points between 1991 and 2025. The female estimate falls by about 12.1 points and the male estimate by about 7.8 points over the same endpoints.
The annual series moves unevenly. A change in the modelled estimate is a signal to investigate further, not a causal explanation by itself.