The World Bank has approved $112 million in financing for the Jordan Support to Private Sector Employment and Skills Project, a program designed to support Jordan’s own efforts to stimulate private sector employment, improve skills training, and reduce youth and female unemployment.
The past 20 months of the COVID-19 pandemic have taken a toll on Jordan’s small, open economy, with its strong links to the rest of the world. Real gross domestic product (GDP) contracted by 1.6% in 2020 and, despite an economic rebound in the first two quarters of 2021, the country’s unemployment rate remains at 24.8%. according to a WB statement.
Women and youth, whose unemployment rates were already higher, are being hit hardest by the COVID-19 crisis: Overall youth unemployment jumped from 40.6% in 2019 to an unprecedented 50% in 2020, while female unemployment rose from 24.1% in 2019 to 32.8 % in 2020, a much larger increase than for men. At 14%, Jordan’s female labor force participation rate is one of the lowest in the world.
In response, the Government of Jordan (GOJ) will be launching the National Employment Program (NEP), which will be supported by this new World Bank project. Part of Jordan’s Economic Priority Plan 2021–2023, the program aims to help the country’s private sector create sustainable jobs at a time when many firms are recovering from the initial impact of the pandemic but are still reluctant to hire new employees. Male unemployment also increased between 2019 and 2020, from 17.7% to 22.6%.
“This program is considered one of the most important pillars of the government’s priorities program for the years 2021-2023, and it is added to the economic stimulus packages approved by the government to support the national economy during the pandemic period,” said H.E. Nasser Shraideh, Minister of Planning and International Cooperation of Jordan. “The NEP was designed in full partnership with private sector representatives, and its implementation mechanism was simplified to enable the private sector to create the largest number of job opportunities, with the least possible government intervention, as the private sector companies will be the most important player in this program.
Source: Jordan news Agency