Economic and women's affairs experts said the rise in female economic participation in Jordan during the second quarter of this year is a positive signal for the labour market, according to a report by the Jordanian News Agency, Petra.
اضافة اعلان
The experts told Petra that the indicators reflect growing involvement by women in economic activity and an increased capacity to contribute to production and income. They stressed, however, that sustaining the improvement requires moving beyond raising participation figures toward building an economy capable of absorbing women entering the labour market through quality, sustainable jobs with competitive wages.
They also called for addressing persistent obstacles including inadequate transport, limited care services, mismatches between skills and employer needs, and restricted access to entrepreneurship finance and markets.
The revised overall female economic participation rate reached 18.6 percent in the second quarter of 2024, up from 16.3 percent in the same period last year — an increase of 2.3 percentage points — placing Jordan just below the Arab countries' average of 18.7 percent.
The revised rate for Jordanian women specifically stood at 14.7 percent in the second quarter of this year, marginally higher than 14.6 percent recorded in the same quarter last year. The rate for non-Jordanian women in Jordan reached 29.0 percent over the same period.
Maha Ali, Secretary-General of the Jordanian National Commission for Women's Affairs, said the improvement is encouraging, particularly given that female unemployment fell to 30.3 percent in the second quarter of this year, a decrease of 2.5 percentage points compared with the same period last year.
Ali cautioned that Jordan remains below the Arab regional average for female participation despite the headline improvement. She also noted that quarterly figures offer only a partial picture, as they are influenced by seasonal work patterns and the influx of university graduates into the job market.
She added that women's economic participation rates in previous years held at 14.9 percent and 14.8 percent respectively — levels she described as requiring continued and intensified effort, especially within the framework of the economic modernisation vision and related national strategies.
Ali highlighted the need to strengthen the legislative and institutional environment to address barriers women face, including aspects of the work environment, limited access to affordable childcare and elder care, transport safety and suitability, and constraints on access to finance, markets and business networks.
Reem Badran, chairperson of the board of directors of Partners of Jordan and a former member of parliament, said the rise in female participation reflects a positive trend toward closing the gap with the Arab regional level.
Badran attributed the improvement to rising educational and training attainment among women, expansion of digital-economy jobs, flexible and remote-work arrangements, supportive policies, and economic pressures pushing more women to seek income for their families.
She stressed that the key question for the coming period is whether higher participation translates into actual, sustainable employment. She described the 18.6 percent figure as a turning point, but said the ultimate goal is productive and sustainable economic contribution that unlocks higher growth rates and makes full use of more than half of the population.
Alaa Al-Bashayreh, professor of economics at the Hashemite University, said the increase marks an important development in the Jordanian labour market and the beginning of a shift in women's relationship to the economy.
"Jordanian women, who have achieved high levels of education and qualification, have begun to move more clearly from the position of untapped human capital to the position of an economic resource seeking to find a foothold in the labour market, as they are the most available productive element in Jordan," Al-Bashayreh said.
She noted that approaching the Arab average should be seen as a transitional phase toward participation rates commensurate with Jordanian women's educational attainment and the national economy's aspirations.
Al-Bashayreh attributed the improvement to a combination of economic pressures, shifting social attitudes toward work as a vehicle for independence and decision-making, expansion of flexible working arrangements, improvements in social protection and childcare provisions, and the emergence of job opportunities closer to residential areas.
She said the simultaneous decline in female unemployment alongside rising participation is the more significant indicator, as it adds productive capacity to the economy, raises output, broadens the income base and strengthens family economic independence.
This article is based on material from Petra, translated into English with AI assistance and edited by Jordan News.
