Jordan Times
Friday, May 20, 2005
Unemployment drops to
12.5% — report
By Hatem Abbadi
AMMAN — A report issued by the National Centre for Human Resources Development this week indicated that there are 1,038,000 workers in the Kingdom, 136,000 of them women, while the number of the unemployed stands at 147,779 individual.
This reflects a drop in the unemployment rate
from 13.9 per cent to 12.5 per cent, according to the report, which shows that
those jobless are mostly young people.
According to the report, 83 per cent of workforce are employed, while the
remaining 17 per cent run their own businesses.
Around 45 per of the Kingdom's workforce is concentrated in the 15-24 age group,
which means around half of the country's workers are young, capable and willing
to effectively participate in the production process, the report said.
State institutions need to train and educate this age group further to enhance
its contribution to the community by increasing individual productivity, the
report's authors stressed.
A total of 420,000 workers, or 40.5 per cent, is based in the Amman Governorate,
home to 38.1 per cent of the country's population, according to the report.
Irbid incorporates 178,000 workers, or 17.2 per cent of the workforce, while the
Zarqa Governorate ranks third, with 175,000 workers, or 16.9 per cent, the
report indicated.
Accordingly, Amman, Irbid and Zarqa account for 75 per cent of the country's
workers while the remaining 25 per cent are distributed among the other
governorates. The least percentage of workers was recorded in Tafileh — 1.3 per
cent or 13,000 workers.
The report also warned of an increase in the percentage of child workers who
have not completed their high school education, calling for studies to examine
the phenomenon.