全球智库信息集成服务系统

High Youth Unemployment Is a Major Economic and Social Concern in Jordan

• Economic growth has created jobs, but not the jobs that youth aspire to.
• Youth have a strong preference for limited public sector jobs, which provide security and benefits.
• However, youth do not hold unrealistically high expectations of finding government jobs. Overall, they display pessimism about obtaining good employment of any sort.
• Young men are consequently uncertain about their ability to marry and support a family.

Youth's Education Is Not Aligned with Skill Requirements of the Private Sector Labor Market

• Many youth recognize the lack of suitability of their educational preparation for the requirements of the job market.
• Youth do not feel free to pursue careers valued by the market, but instead feel pressure to conform to parental or societal expectations.
• Obtaining higher levels of education was widely desired, but youth face barriers to achieving this goal, including the overwhelming importance of the secondary school exit exam and the financial costs of higher education.

Most Young Women Interviewed Have Career Aspirations

• Although overall female labor-force participation is very low in Jordan, female youth expressed the desire to work, and many would delay marriage to pursue careers.
• Female youth are constrained in their choices by external factors such as family and societal pressures and expectations, not by internalized preferences for traditional jobs or family roles.
• Career choices for women entering the workforce are limited beyond the government sector and within the government, restricted to certain areas such as teaching.