AMMAN —
Unemployment has been on the rise in the past few years, reaching 23.3 percent
in the fourth quarter of 2021, while migrant workers’ contribution to the local
workforce has also been climbing.
اضافة اعلان
The rises peg
questions about the status of new job opportunities and if Jordanians can
actually fill them.
Musa Al-Shteiwi,
head of the
Economic and Social Council, said that nearly 40 to 45 percent of
the Kingdom’s workforce is made up of non-Jordanians, with almost one million
workers.
He pointed out
that migrant workers can be divided into two categories; the first is workers
coming from abroad by applying for work permits through the Ministry of Labor.
The second, which is the largest and has been increasing in the past few years,
are refugee workers who already reside in Jordan.
Shteiwi
maintained that the government is obliged to create job opportunities for
refugee workers in accordance with its international commitments.
He said the main
challenge to Jordan’s unemployment and the driver behind joblessness rates is
the high number of fresh college graduates who seek limited middle class
professions, while skilled or semi-skilled labor are the ones with higher job
opportunities.
“Between 50,000
to 60,000 job opportunities are created each year by the government, but most
of them are considered lower class professions,” Shteiwi said.
Economist Zyan
Al-Zawaneh told
Jordan News that “there wasn’t any actual plan offered
by successive governments to replace migrant workers with Jordanian workers
and, with the current economic situation, there has to be one.”
Recently, the
Ministry of Labor launched the National Employment Program, which aims at
creating 60,000 jobs in cooperation with the private sector.
Zawaneh said
that “there is a need to have a clearer focus on preparing the Jordanian labor
for the job market.”
He cited the
failure of successive governments in planning for the challenge. “Almost 15
years ago, we started teaching IT majors at Jordanian universities and the
result was that we now have an oversupply of graduates in that field almost to
the point of saturation.”
The result,
Zawaneh said: “Today, Jordanians are more willing and are actually looking for
lower class professions.”
He said that
“the government needs to create an intermediate plan for three to five years to
replace migrant workers by
Jordanians in order to save the economy.”
Hamada Abu Nijmeh, head
of Workers’ House, said that circumstances surrounding available job
opportunities do not suit Jordanian workers. This includes the working hours,
labor rights, the work environment and wages.
Read more Features
Jordan News
.jpg)
.jpg)
