‘31,000 jobs created in second half of 2015’

AMMAN — Job opportunities created during the second half of 2015 amounted up to around 31,000 jobs compared to 30,000 jobs during the same period in 2014, according to a report issued by the Department of Statistics (DoS) on Sunday. 

Among the jobs created, 20,000 opportunities were for men while 11,000 jobs were for women, the report said, adding that the private sector created 16,400 of the jobs while 14,400 were created by the public sector. 

Maan residents obtained 10 jobs for each 1,000 residents, while in Madaba, Balqa and Amman, only two out of 1,000 residents obtained jobs, DoS said, adding that 89.6 per cent of the jobs (around 28,000) were taken by Jordanians.

While Maan has a population of 144,083, 4 million people live in Amman, 189,192 people live in Madaba and 491,709 people live in Balqa, according to the 2015 national census.

The distribution according to location reveals that 77 per cent of all the created jobs were in Amman, Irbid and Zarqa. Zarqa recruited the most workers, with 65 per cent of the jobs created in it obtained by workers residing elsewhere. 

Most jobs targeted people between the ages of 15 and 39, while fewer jobs were available for those who are 50 and older, DoS said, adding that 84 per cent of those who obtained the jobs were single. 

Around 43.9 per cent of the jobs were obtained by those who have not obtained their General Secondary Education Certificate Examination (Tawjihi) degree, while 41.5 per cent had bachelor’s degrees and higher, the report added, revealing that those who majored in social sciences, business and law were the most employed among holders of higher education degrees.