Unemployment continues to rise in 2019, hitting 19%

AMMAN — Unemployment in Jordan reached 19 per cent during the first quarter of 2019, up by 0.6 per cent from figures recorded during the same period of 2018, according to a report released by the Department of Statistics (DoS) on Sunday.

The report indicates that unemployment among males increased by 0.4 percentage points in the first quarter of this year to reach 16.4 per cent, while among females the rate rose by 1.1 percentage points compared with the same quarter of 2018 to reach 28.9 per cent.

In comparison with other levels of educational qualifications, the report notes that unemployment is particularly high among holders of bachelor’s degrees or higher, reaching 24.4 per cent of the workforce with the same academic qualifications.

The results indicate that 54.7 per cent of unemployed people hold a secondary education certificate or a higher qualification.

Among males who hold an undergraduate degree or higher, the rate of unemployment reached 25.6 per cent, while among females it stood at 78 per cent.

The age group which recorded the highest rate of unemployment was 15-19 year old, with a rate of 48.7 per cent, followed by 20-24 years of age, for which the rate stood at 38.5 per cent, according to the DoS.

Geographically, Zarqa topped the Kingdom’s governorates with the highest joblessness rate at 21.7 per cent, while Karak recorded the lowest rate at 14.4 per cent.

Employed people who are 15 years and older constitute 28.4 per cent of the population in the same age group, according to the DoS, while 60.3 per cent of working males are in the age group of 20-39 years and working females in the same age group amounted to 64.4 per cent.

DoS official figures show that half of the Kingdom’s workforce did not complete high school.