Employment policies should focus on quality training, economists say

AMMAN — Government policies addressing the employment of young Jordanians should give further attention to quality training and encourage investments in all sizes, according to experts.

Jordan needs to shift from the rentier state approach to develop a productive economy that exports services and products, mainly through the private sector, said Omar Razzaz, chairman of the Jordan Ahli Bank.

The term “rentier state” is commonly used to describe states that derive all or a substantial portion of their national revenues from renting indigenous resources to external clients, where the state controls the revenues and their distribution.

It is frequently applied to oil-rich states, such as in Gulf Arab countries.

Although this transition is taking place in several parts of the world, it could be “difficult to achieve” in Jordan due to the political outlook of the region, but it is greatly needed, Razzaz said.

Speaking at a debate on the ability of the local market to provide jobs for young Jordanians, he said guest workers occupied some 500,000 job opportunities in Jordan between 2003 and 2008.

One of the obstacles to employment, he argued, is Jordanians’ insistence on obtaining a university degree and working in the field of their study, regardless of the available job opportunities.  

Razzaz added that around 66 per cent of workers in Jordan have a high school degree or below, noting that the economy needs workers in all sectors. 

To encourage Jordanians to work in various industrial or agricultural fields, employers must offer efficient training and a safe work environment, he said Wednesday at an event organised by Diwanieh at Haya Cultural Centre.

On the other hand, Jumana Ghneimat, Al Ghad editor-in-chief, cited “deformities” in the labour market that successive governments over the past 10 years were unable to address, a matter that kept unemployment rates between 13 and 15 per cent over that period.

Official employment campaigns, which used to employ up to 70,000 Jordanians years ago, now secure jobs for 47,000 people, with not enough follow-up measures to ensure they keep their jobs, Ghneimat said.

She also cited an issue with the outcomes of the education system at schools and universities, calling for creating vocational programmes at universities to meet the desire for a university degree and promote technical education at the same time.

Governments, Ghneimat charged, have taken the “culture of shame” as a pretext for their failing employment policies, noting that this phenomenon has already started disappearing from a number of sectors.

She noted that Jordanians are not likely to consider job opportunities that do not provide them with social security, health insurance and a suitable salary. 

“We have the potential and the ambition.” 

A “truthful” governmental willingness to implement efficient policies is necessary for addressing the current deformities in the labour market, Ghneimat said.

Although around 30 per cent of young Jordanians have the desire to establish their own businesses, many of them fall in the trap of repetition and create projects that lack creativity and financial planning, she said.

Razzaz stressed the “high quality” of Jordanian human resources, adding that further investment in young people is needed to keep these potentials at home, developing them further to export knowledge and services to other countries, to counter the current issue of brain drain.

Collective efforts from all stakeholders, including the private and public sectors, as well as media outlets and civil society, organisations, are required to create a more productive economy, he added.

Ghneimat expressed fears that women, who only form 13 per cent of the labour force, may be at a higher risk of paying the price of the lack of opportunities for youths in the labour market, explaining that they may accept low-paying jobs with difficult conditions that men would refuse.