Jordan’s unemployment rate down to 21.4% during Q4 2023-DoS

Amman: The unemployment rate in the Kingdom decreased by 1.5% points during the last quarter of last year 2023 at 21.4%, compared to the last quarter of 2022, marking a drop of 0.9 percentage points, compared to the third quarter of 2023. In its quarterly report on Jordan's unemployment rate released on Thursday, Department of Statistics (DoS) confirmed that the unemployment rate for males reached 18.9% during the fourth quarter of 2023, compared to 29.8% for women. The unemployment rate for males went down by 1.7% points, and dropped by 1.9% points for women, compared to the last quarter of 2022. Comparing unemployment rate for the last quarter of 2023 with the previous quarter, the unemployment rate plunged by 0.9% points for males and by 1.9% points for women, respectively. According to the report, the unemployment rate reached 25.1% among holders of university degrees, marking a decrease of 3.2% points, compared to the previous quarter. The report indicated that 56.6% of the total unemployed individu als hold the General Secondary Education Certificate Examination (Tawjihi) or higher qualification, and therefore the total jobless people whose educational certificates were less than Tawjihi reached 42.8%. At the governorate level, the highest unemployment rate was recorded in Mafraq governorate at a rate of 24.8% and the lowest unemployment rate was in southern Aqaba governorate at 17.7%, the report showed. Meanwhile, rate of workers among the Kingdom's total population aged 15 years and over reached 26.8% and 58.7% of the employed males were in the age group of 20-39 years, while female workers reached 60.7%, the report revealed. Source: Jordan News Agency