18.5% Unemployment Rate during the fourth Quarter of 2017
The Department of Statistics issued its quarterly report on the Unemployment Rate of 2017: The following are the main results of this survey:
Unemployment:
– The results show that the Unemployment Rate has reached 18.5% during the fourth quarter of 2017; the Unemployment Rate for males has reached 16.1% while it was 27.5 % for females for the same quarter.
– The Unemployment Rate has witnessed no change in this round compared with the third quarter of 2017.
– Taking gender into consideration, it becomes clear that the Unemployment Rate has increased for males by 0.7 percentage points and decreased for females by 2.5 percentage points during the fourth quarter of 2017 compared with the third quarter of 2017.
The Unemployed:
– The Survey results show that the Unemployment Rate is high among the university degree holders (Bachelor degree and higher divided by labor force for the same educational level) by 22.8% compared with the other educational levels.
– The results also show that 53.3% of the Unemployed are secondary certificate holders and higher, and that 46.7% have less than secondary school qualifications.
– Male Unemployed percentage of bachelor holders and higher was 24.8% against 73.0% for females which is varied according to educational level and sex.
– The highest rate of Unemployment was recorded in the age group 15-19 and 20-24 years by 45.4% and 36.4% respectively.
– The highest Rate of Unemployment was recorded in Madaba at 29.6% and the lowest rate was recorded in Karak at 15.4%.
The Employed:
– The Employed rate among the age group (15 and above) is 31.0%.
– The results show that about 59.5% of the employed males and 67.4% of the employed females are concentrated in the age group 20-39 years.
– About half of the employed have less than secondary qualifications, 9.1% of the secondary level and 40.0% are higher than secondary level.
– The results also show that about 84.6% of the employed are paid employees (82.2% for males against 95.2% for females).
The Labor Force: (Employed & Unemployed):
– The results show a clear variation in the labor force distribution with regard to educational level and sex. It was found that about 60.0% of the total male labor force has less than secondary educational qualifications compared to 13.2% for females. The results indicate also that 66.0% of the total labor force among females has bachelor level or higher, compared with 23.6% for males.
– The Crude Economic Activity Rate (i.e. labor force attributed to the total population) reached 25.5%.
– The Refined Economic Participation Rate (the labor force attributed to the population 15 years and over) is 38.1% for the whole Kingdom (60.0% for males against 16.2% for females) for the fourth quarter of 2017 compared with 39.2% for the whole Kingdom (60.7% for males and 17.0 % for females) for the third quarter of 2017.
It should be noted that the Survey included a total sample size of about 16 thousand households distributed all over the governorates of the Kingdom, and is representative of the Urban, Rural, and Regions. It is worthy to mention here that the Employment and Unemployment Surveys are carried out at the middle of every quarter and provide data reflecting the situation of the complete quarter (Oct, Nov, Dec). The individual is asked whether he/she has searched for a job during the last four weeks before the interview according to the international recommendations applied in Jordan.
