‘Unemployment to rise in near future due to wrong policies ‘

AMMAN — The Jordan Labour Watch on Tuesday issued a statement predicting an increase in the unemployment rate in Jordan over the next years as a result of “flawed economic and social policies developed and implemented by the successive governments”.

The organisation referred to the recent "Global Employment and Social Prospects: Trends in 2018" report published by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), which estimated employment growth to be lower than that of the labour force in emerging and developing countries including Jordan. 

“The results of the ILO study are in line with those of subsequent reports issued by the Jordan Labour Watch,” the statement claimed, stressing that “this confirms that the significant progress made in the past decades in Jordan has been stalled since 2012.” 

The organisation attributed the stagnation to “a flawed governmental model which failed to create sufficient employment opportunities for the new graduates entering the labour market”, in addition to “a parliament weak in its ability to monitor the performance of the government”. 

Regarding the employment figures over the past years, the statement pointed out that “the local labour market has witnessed a decline in the number of job opportunities created within the Jordanian economy,” stressing the decrease in the number of job offers from 70,000 in 2007 to 48,000 in 2015.

In addition, the organisation noted that “the number of graduates looking for jobs is increasing by 100,000 per year,” pointing out that the “huge gap between the needs of the labour market and the skills that students are being taught in both higher education institutions and vocational training programmes”.

Economist Wajdi Makhamreh told The Jordan Times that “there is a mismatch between the qualifications that graduates are offering to the labour market and the skills that employees are demanding,” noting that “this, coupled with the huge amount of expatriates populating the low profile jobs, is the root of the unemployment issue in Jordan.”

“Furthermore, we can not ignore the hundreds of employees who leave their jobs due to the extremely low wages,”  the economist added, noting that “the parliament should take responsibility in this issue and increase the minimum wage by law.”

In addition, Makhamreh highlighted the “massive” concentration of employment in the public sector, stressing that “the government shall tackle this issue and implement strategies to foster entrepreneurship, which would result in a higher average income per capita and a bigger number of employment opportunities in the private sector.”

The Ministry of Labour could not be reached for comment on the statement despite several attempts by The Jordan Times.