'Gov’t close to achieving job-creation goal for 2019'

AMMAN — The government has provided 30,026 jobs of the 30,550 opportunities it pledged to create by the end of 2019, Labour Minister Nidal Bataineh said on Tuesday.

"Of the total 30,026 Jordanians who have been provided with jobs during the third quarter of this year, 27,078 have already subscribed to the Social Security Corporation (SSC)," Bataineh said, noting that those who got jobs through the Qatar initiative and workers in the self-employee programmes funded by the Development and Employment Fund are not subject to social security.  

The top official’s remarks were made at a press conference held at the SSC to identify the numbers of new workers and review the government's efforts to create new jobs, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

Stressing that the government is working towards fostering trust and transparency, Bataineh said the unemployment rate is “way larger” than the provided jobs, highlighting the efforts to restructure the current programmes and improve investment to address the actual figures. 

Referring to the National Service programme, which aims at supporting the national economy and supplying the market with qualified young personnel while also aligning the vocational and technical outputs of Jordan’s education systems with the needs of the labour market, Bataineh said the absorptive capacity of the second phase, scheduled to be launched in November, will reach 6,000 interns.

Touching on Qatar's initiative to secure 10,000 jobs for Jordanians, the minister said a Jordanian delegation is scheduled to visit Doha next week to follow up on the latest developments. A technical team will also visit the Gulf country next month to provide access to the national platform for employment.