Opportunities for youth in Jordan
2019
Highlights
Jordan’s young, educated population presents an enormous opportunity to accelerate growth and positive change. Roughly 63 per cent of people in the Kingdom are under the age of 30 - and with 99 per cent literacy rate among youth, their unique capacity can be further harnessed to support the ambitious development agenda in the country. However, with one of the highest youth unemployment rates in the world (and female youth unemployment being almost triple that of males), this potential remains largely unrealized2. Thirty-nine per cent of Jordanian youth aged 15-29 are not in education, employment or training (NEET)3, constraining pathways for youth to transition to a productive member of society. The mismatch between the current focus of the education system (and resulting skills of youth) and the needs of the labor market is at the root of this disconnect4. Results from a round table carried out between UNICEF and the Jordanian private sector in 2017 showed that the key skills required by employers are communications, problem-solving and other transferrable skills.
