Sunday, August 11th, 2024
The Jordanian Labor Watch confirmed that young people in Jordan face many obstacles that prevent them from joining the labor market, which has contributed to very high youth unemployment rates that are among the highest in the world.
In a statement issued on the occasion of International Youth Day, which falls on August 12 of each year, the Jordanian Labor Watch, which is affiliated with the Phenix Center for Studies, explained that youth unemployment rates in Jordan have reached about 43 percent, which is a result of economic and educational policies in addition to ineffective employment policies that have been in place for decades.
The Jordanian Labor Watch explained that the deflationary fiscal policies and unfair tax policies (general sales tax, withholding taxes and customs duties) applied by the government have weakened the Jordanian economy's ability to generate new job opportunities to absorb new entrants to the labor market, as about 140,000 job seekers enter the labor market annually, while the Jordanian economy, both public and private sectors, generate no more than 40,000 new jobs annually.
With regard to educational policies, and on the occasion of the recent release of the high school results, the Jordanian Labor Watch pointed out that the expansion of academic university education has continued for three decades at the expense of technical and vocational intermediate education, contrary to the needs of the labor market and best practices around the world, creating structural distortions in the labor market and contributing to increasing unemployment rates among young people.
The Jordanian Labor Watch pointed out that the number of high school graduates enrolled in universities is close to 300,000 students, while the number of students in intermediate community colleges and vocational training institutes does not exceed 30,000.
According to the Jordanian Labor Watch, the failure to create the appropriate encouraging environment for this type of education, as well as the failure to increase study seats in the VTC (the Vocational Training Corporation), which has limited absorption capacity.
The Jordanian Labor Watch called on students who succeeded in high school this year to choose majors in which there are job opportunities and look for future professions that are expected to expand rapidly in the coming years, in addition to enrolling in intermediate community colleges and vocational training institutions.
As for the employment policies implemented by successive governments, including the current one, the Jordanian Labor Watch emphasized that they have proven ineffective, as they have not contributed to reducing youth unemployment rates.
This is mainly because the design of employment programs is based on inaccurate assumptions, namely that job seekers do not know how to access available job opportunities and that private sector employers cannot reach young job seekers.
These programs should target the real causes of high unemployment rates, such as reconsidering unfair fiscal and tax policies, reviewing education policies, and improving working conditions.
The Jordanian Labor Watch noted that working conditions in many branches of the private sector are still poor, especially the low wage levels, which remain at 260 dinars per month, despite the periodic increases in the prices of various goods and services, which is close to half of the poverty line for families.
The Jordanian Labor Watch emphasized that the government policies that we see today, the latest of which is the issuance of the system of reducing the contributions of old age, disability, and death insurance for workers under the age of 30 in the private sector, contradict the directions of the Jordanian state to ensure the involvement of young people in the labor market, as this system will make it difficult for young people to search for work, as it deprives them of a basic right and weakens the social protections provided to them.
The Jordanian Labor Watch emphasized that these difficult challenges faced by young men and women in Jordan are the result of a series of economic choices and policies that have been implemented in Jordan over the past decades, and that it is time to review them, as local and international opinion polls indicate that the majority of Jordanian youth want to emigrate.