Amman, September 02, 2024
The Jordanian Labor Watch confirmed that the economic policies applied and still applied by the government have not succeeded in reducing unemployment rates in Jordan, and they remain at high levels compared to the historical unemployment rates in Jordan, and their rates in most countries of the world.
The unemployment rate in Jordan is still fixed at 21.4 percent during the second quarter of 2024, according to what the Department of Statistics recently announced, while the unemployment rate before the Corona pandemic was 19.2 percent.
The Jordanian Labor Watch said, in a statement issued today, Monday, that the unemployment indicators for the second quarter of this year do not reflect a significant change in the reality of unemployment in Jordan, as the gap in the economic participation rate between males and females is still large, as it reached 53.6 percent for males compared to 13.9 percent for females.
The Jordanian Labor Watch indicated that these indicators show that the Jordanian economy is still unable to create enough jobs to reduce unemployment rates, contrary to what the government announced two weeks ago that the net number of jobs created during the past year amounted to 95,342 jobs.
The reasons for the high unemployment rates are the reluctance of large segments of young men and women to work in economic sectors that lack decent work conditions, especially low wage levels, and the absence of social protections.
The applied education policies have also contributed significantly to the increase in unemployment rates, as they continue to expand academic university education at the expense of intermediate, technical, and vocational education, even though the labor market generates jobs for this type of graduate.
The Jordanian Labor Watch pointed out that the government is still applying these “ineffective” economic policies that have been in place for decades, which have put pressure on the economy and society and weakened domestic demand, in addition to continuing to apply deflationary fiscal policies and “unfair” tax policies that have weakened the Jordanian economy's ability to generate new job opportunities that reduce unemployment rates, as well as the expansion of indirect taxes (general sales tax, withholding taxes, and customs duties), which led to a decline in overall economic growth rates during the past years.
Jordanian Labor Watch emphasized the need to reconsider the economic policies in place, especially low wage policies, as setting a low wage threshold has not contributed to moving the economy forward, nor to the expansion of the national economy, nor has it led to increased economic growth rates, which is one of the main keys to creating new job opportunities.
Low wage levels have not only weakened domestic demand, which is one of the engines of economic growth, but also contributed to raising unemployment rates by forcing workers to work in additional jobs and professions to secure additional income to enable them to live with dignity in light of the successive increases in inflation rates, and these jobs could have gone to new entrants to the labor market.
The Jordanian Labor Watch called for reconsidering wage levels in order to raise them, reviewing education policies to make intermediate, technical, and vocational education at least equivalent to academic education, reconsidering unfair tax policies, and focusing on establishing productive projects that generate real job opportunities among the unemployed, especially the youth.