Jordan’s population is currently about 6.1 million, with a male/female ratio of 102:100. More than 70% of the population is under 30 years of age, which suggests that an investment in youth can be an instrument for national development. Those between the ages of 15 and 24 comprise 22% of the population; 48% of them being women.
Attention to youth issues in Jordan surfaced as early as 2000 when the first National HDR was dedicated to youth. The first Arab Human Development Report (2002) drew further attention to their needs and perspectives though subsequent actions were more at the level of discussion and debate. Recent ‘Arab Spring’ related developments have signalled the need for urgent attention to both the potential of young people, and also the implications of neglecting their needs.
Jordan is currently experiencing a youth bulge and, though the ratio of children below 15 of age has been decreasing over recent decades, the population will remain predominantly youthful for several years, with obvious implications for health, education and employments needs. Population projections indicate that Jordan is approaching a demographic transition, whereby the dependency ratio will decrease significantly and reach its lowest rate between 2030 and 2035.
This means that the size of the working age population (15-64 ) will be significantly higher than the dependent population (children and the elderly). The Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation (MoPIC), and the Higher Population Council have developed a policy document on the demographic transition and a framework to ensure monitoring of its implementation within the Executive Development Programme .
According to predictions appearing in Jordan’s National Agenda, under current conditions by the year 2015 unemployment could reach 20%. High unemployment can be attributed to a range of causes, including inability of the economy to provide job opportunities for all new entrants, mismatch between the education outputs and job market requirements, and the shrinking number of available or newly created vacancies in the public sector. Other causes include a lack of social and health insurance in the informal sector.
Unemployment rate among young people reached high levels–up to 27% in 2008 and 2009. Unemployment among young people is more than twice the national unemployment rate. This leaves youth vulnerable to poverty, or failing to provide for their families.
Although females outmatch males in terms of academic qualifications, data indicates that unemployment among women is twice as high as the national average unemployment rate (21.7% for women versus 10.4% for men in 2010). It is worth mentioning that more than 78% of unemployed females are educated (holding an intermediate college diploma or higher) vis-à-vis only 23% of unemployed males who hold the same university certificates.
Unemployment rates for women are particularly high. Their participation in the labor market is much lower than that of men. Urban unemployment rates were 10.1% for men and 23.3% for women in 2009, and have been relatively constant in the last three years. In rural areas, female unemployment reaches 28.1%, compared to 23.3% in the urban areas. The overall unemployment rate in rural areas was an estimated 14.8% in 2009, compared to 12.5% in urban areas. The heavy reliance of rural areas on public sector employment, combined with declining public sector, helps to explain why recent protests often originates there.
Unemployment remains high, 13.1 in 2011, according to official figures, hovering around the same rates irrespective of the growth rates registered for the GDP. Youth, including educated youth, experience high unemployment, with those aged 20-29 making up nearly 61% of the total unemployed. In absolute numbers this constitutes an estimated 105,000 unemployed in this age group, 43 % males and 63 % females.
Young people, women, and people with disabilities are not well represented in Jordan’s labour force. Root causes of unemployment in Jordan are of a structural nature and result from economic growth strategies that were not well-thought. Little emphasis was put on the agricultural sector, which resulted into migrations from rural to urban areas, leading to inability to channel the educated youth towards the labour market requirements. Vocational training initiatives were mostly underdeveloped and job seekers were reluctant to acquire more «specialized» skills. Private sector was not integrated into economic activity, and government failed to sufficiently support SME’s through providing better business environment. SMEs are considered an important employment contributor.
Government focused in recent years to create new jobs, and reduce unemployment to 6.8% by 2017. Between 2000 and 2005, the economy did create jobs but this did not reduce unemployment among nationals. This shows the mismatch between the quality of jobs offered and the expectations of highly educated individuals, which lead them to remain “voluntarily unemployed” or migrate, where they could get high quality jobs and high salaries. In 2010 Jordanian migrants were around 12% of the Jordanian population. Households receiving remittances are less reluctant to get employed because they have a higher «reservation wage» making them less willing to accept low quality jobs. In 2009, 20% of the country’s labor force was composed of foreign workers.
large numbers of expatriate workers are employed in low paid jobs that are not attractive to nationals because of the working conditions. Despite the ambitious targets of the Employment Policy, it is questionable whether this will lead to a significant rise in work force participation rates. If employment figures do not rise, it is likely to pose a major challenge over the long term.
The demographic characteristics of the Jordanian population show that the Jordanian economy faces a challenge of absorbing the large numbers of people entering in the labour market. These attributes also show the incapacity of the economy to provide decent jobs for all employment–making the achievement of the MDG more difficult. Jordan’s open labour market policy seems geared to the needs of big businesses which benefit from cheap labor, and the desire of the middle and upper classes desiring cheap domestic help. Continuing to keep wages at low levels also helps the largest, labour-intensive businesses rather than Jordanian workers.
Jordanians are at a disadvantage when compared to expatriate workers who are willing to work longer hours, could be more productive, and often accept lower wages. At the same time, remittances and foreign aid help to cushion the effects of low-wage imported labor, allowing Jordanian workers (and their families) to avoid feeling the pain of these policies.
Jordan’s population is currently about 6.1 million, with a male/female ratio of 102:100. More than 70% of the population is under 30 years of age, which suggests that an investment in youth can be an instrument for national development. Those between the ages of 15 and 24 comprise 22% of the population; 48% of them being women. Attention to youth issues in Jordan surfaced as early as 2000 when the first National HDR was dedicated to youth. The first Arab Human Development Report (2002...
Related MDGs
