JEA laments high unemployment rates among engineers

AMMAN — More than 35,000 engineers are unemployed due to the lack of investments and “unsuitable” university admission criteria for engineering majors, according to the Jordanian Engineers Association (JEA).

About 20 per cent of the Kingdom’s engineers are jobless, Tariq Almomani, head of the training, employment, and practice of the profession department at the JEA told The Jordan Times.

He that the Kingdom has around 174,000 registered engineers.

“There are currently around 10,000 gradutes with a bachelor’s degree of all engineering majors and around 46,000 engineering students at university,” he said.

Almomani observed that the pandemic has caused a large decline in investments and has impacted the engineering job market, resulting in high rates of unemployment among engineers. 

Moreover, Almomani said that the JEA has demanded reconsidering university admission criteria for engineering majors to limit the number of new engineers entering the job market to control unemployment rates. 

There are 26 universities in the Kingdom that grant bachelor’s degrees in engineering, sending large numbers of engineers into the market every year, he said, noting that it has become “very challenging” to accommodate these fresh graduates with jobs.

“There are no alternatives when choosing majors, due to the prevailing culture,” he said.

The JEA is offering training for engineers, among which is the teaching of German language, to enhance their prospects of landing jobs abroad, he said.