ACC report sheds light on workforce

AMMAN — A report published recently by the Amman Chamber of Commerce (ACC) revealed that the trade and services sector employs 42.5 per cent of the Kingdom’s workers, compared with 15.8 per cent by the industrial sector and less than 1 per cent by the agricultural sector. 

The chamber’s report, based on social security data, revealed that the number of people employed by the trade and services sector stood at 524,000 last year, 456,000 of whom were Jordanians, according to the Jordan News Agency, Petra. 

The report noted that the number of workers in the Kingdom was estimated at 1.235 million last year. 

The number of workers in the industrial sector stood at 194,000 in 2018, 112,000 of whom were Jordanian, while the agricultural sector employed 5,000 people, 2,000 of whom were Jordanian. 

The trade and service sector’s contribution to the GDP reached approximately 59.5 per cent, attributed to the restaurants and hotels sector at a 9.7 per cent contribution, transport and telecommunications at 8.7 per cent, financial and real estate services and business at 22.4 per cent, agriculture at 5.6 per cent, construction at 2.9 per cent, electricity and water at 3.6 per cent and personal and social services at 6.6 per cent, according to the report.

The ACC document revealed that the GDP stood at JD29.984 billion last year, a 3.7 per cent increase from JD28.903 billion recorded in 2017.

According to the report, the value of national exports amounted to JD2.258 billion, marking a 4.3 per cent increase compared to 2017. 

The Kingdom’s imports for the first half of this year are valued at around 6.598 billion, compared with 6.860 billion for the same period in 2018, a 3.8 per cent decrease, the report said.