Khaberni - The Jordanian Strategies Forum called for a reassessment of the methodology used to measure unemployment rates in Jordan, stating that the general rate conceals a deep structural flaw in the labor market, which is due to the large size of non-Jordanian labor compared to the local workforce.
The forum noted in a recent report that Jordan ranks twelfth globally in unemployment rate according to data from the International Labor Organization for the year 2024, with a rate of 18%, which is about double the Arab average and four times the global average.
Despite a decrease in unemployment in the first quarter of 2025 to 16.6% according to data from the General Statistics Department, the unemployment rate among Jordanians alone reached 21.3%, compared to 9.7% for non-Jordanians.
Even though the unemployment rate among Jordanian females stands at 32.9% compared with 18.2% among males, the absolute numbers show that the number of unemployed males is about 285,000, which is nearly double the number of unemployed females of about 144,000. The total workforce for Jordanians is about 2.01 million individuals, including 1.6 million employed and 430,000 unemployed.
Based on this, the size of the non-Jordanian workforce in 2024 is estimated at about 1.42 million individuals, reflecting a large number of foreign workers in the labor market. The data also shows that the unemployment rate among non-Jordanians is much lower than their Jordanian counterparts, which leads to a reduction in the overall unemployment rate at the aggregate level.
The figures indicate that the number of employed non-Jordanians constitutes about 80% of the number of employed Jordanians, where for every 10 Jordanian workers, there are nearly 8 non-Jordanian workers. The data estimates that the number of non-Jordanian workers is three times the number of unemployed Jordanians, reflecting significant competition in the labor market.
Comparing the number of non-Jordanian workers officially registered with the Ministry of Labor—about 312.9 thousand workers—with the forum’s estimates of the size of the foreign workforce, it appears that more than a million non-Jordanian workers are actually working outside the formal framework, versus about 300 thousand informal Jordanian workers.
Consequently, the forum estimates the rate of informal labor in Jordan at 43% of the total employed persons, and the informal labor of non-Jordanians constitutes about 77% of the total informal workforce, which is nearly three times the informal Jordanian labor. This labor is concentrated in sectors such as agriculture, construction, trade, and services, thereby exacerbating imbalances in the labor market and weakening the system of regulation and social protection.
The report warns that a large segment of non-Jordanian labor dominates a significant portion of job opportunities, without a corresponding contribution to public revenues, as most are not subject to income tax or social security contributions, despite benefiting from subsidized goods. Additionally, their contribution to the GDP is limited, as data from the central bank shows that their remittances abroad amounted to 361.3 million Jordanian dinars in 2024.
Based on these indicators, the Jordanian Strategies Forum recommended immediate intervention to address this structural flaw by studying the reasons behind the large size of non-Jordanian labor and re-evaluating official statistics more accurately.
It also emphasized the need to recalibrate the labor market and direct its benefits internally, by reorganizing foreign labor and activating mechanisms to integrate them into the regulatory framework or rationalize their presence in line with national employment priorities.
The forum confirmed that regulating informal labor and curbing its expansion is a crucial step in creating new opportunities for Jordanians and reducing high unemployment rates. It also advocated for adopting a package of comprehensive interventions in the medium and long term, notably:
-Offering temporary tax and operational incentives to institutions that increase employment rates of Jordanians, especially in sectors with low wages or those facing a shortage of national labor, alongside supporting on-the-job training programs.
-Strengthening the monitoring of the informal economy and activating penalties, with adopting digital solutions for tracking informal labor and gradually integrating it into the formal economy.
-Enhancing transparency in the publication of data and statistics, and providing updated and regular reports that clarify the overall picture of the labor market.
