Unemployment rate in drops by 0.8% in 2023 - DoS

AMMAN — The Department of Statistics (DoS) reported on Tuesday that the unemployment rate in Jordan for 2023 decreased 0.8 percentage points from the previous year, settling at 22 per cent.

The DoS, in a statement issued on the occasion of International Labour Day, celebrated annually on May 1, said that the unemployment rate among males had dropped by one percentage point from 2022, standing at 19.6 per cent in 2023. 

Meanwhile, the unemployment rate among females decreased 0.7 percentage points from the previous year, reaching 30.7 per cent in 2023, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. 

The DoS also pointed out that the number of workers insured by the Social Security Corporation had seen a "significant increase over the years,  rising from 366,000 workers in 2000 to approximately 1,503,019 workers in 2022.

The report also noted that the average monthly wage has increased from JD60 in the mid-1970s to JD211 in the mid-1990s and further increased to JD546 in 2021 across both the public and private sectors, adding that the average wage for males was JD563, compared with JD505 for females.

In terms of sector-specific wages, the average monthly wage for public sector workers was JD643 in 2021, with males earning an average of JD679, compared with JD585 for females. In the private sector, the average monthly wage was JD497, with males earning an average of JD515, compared with JD443 for females.

The DoS noted that the economic participation of Jordanian women still fell short of the desired level, with the economic participation rate for Jordanian women, defined as the number of economically active women aged 15 and above divided by the total number of women in the same age group, was 14 per cent in 2023. 

This indicates that for every 7.14 women, one was economically active in 2023, compared with one economically active man for every 1.88 men in the age group of 15 and above.