Policies to reduce unemployment

Hamada Abu Najma 24/6/2017

The unemployment rate is one of the most important economic indicators for the country. This indicator and the figures provided by statistical surveys regarding it are supposed to be used in employing policies and programs to address imbalances in the labor market. To reduce the increases in this indicator that were expected in recent years as a result of a number of local and regional factors, a number of plans and policies were put in place, including the National Agenda, the National Employment Strategy, and the Government Plan 2013-2016, ending with Jordan Vision 2025. These policies and plans had a great impact on reducing the severity of the rise in unemployment rates, reaching (11.9%) in 2014, which is its lowest level in ten previous years.

Jordan’s Vision 2015 included an analysis of the economic, political and social reality of Jordan, and required the adoption of policies capable of addressing a number of challenges that it highlighted. It was hoped that if all policies and programs were implemented, the Jordanian economy would be revived, with the GDP growth rate reaching (7%) in 2025, and that the challenges of Syrian refugees, labor market imbalances, and the absorption of new entrants would be addressed, so that the unemployment rate would decrease to (9%).

However, it is clear to every observer in 2017 that a clear slowdown has prevailed in the implementation of the Vision’s policies and programs by the concerned institutions. For example, in the business sector, the Vision came to address the imbalances and challenges facing the business environment, trade and competitiveness, capital, and medium and small businesses, and to review and develop the policies and legislation that would ensure this. However, we have noticed weakness and a decline in investments, especially in the areas far from the capital that the Jordan 2025 Vision focused on, as we have not witnessed any progress in this field, especially in finding investments that generate job opportunities for Jordanians.

In the Citizen Axis, which came to address issues of the workforce, employment, education, health, and to address the gap between education outputs and labor market requirements, with estimated costs of (224.5) million dinars to implement employment and training sector programs, we noticed that the opposite happened, as we witnessed a remarkable overreach in its implementation, a deviation from the path set by the vision, and a significant reduction in the financial allocations for implementing its programs.

The seriousness of the current situation in the labor market and the exacerbation of the unemployment problem and its unprecedented rates necessitate directing all concerned parties to implement all policies included in the vision and its programs, and focusing on initiatives that reduce unemployment and regulate the labor market to accommodate new entrants, taking into consideration all categories and segments of society such as people with disabilities, women and youth, and targeting each of them with programs that serve them and invest their energies, and regulating the use of Syrian labor in a way that ensures the implementation of the response plan to the Syrian crisis without competing with Jordanian labor.