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Ammon News - AMMAN (Petra) A national employment campaign kicked off on Sunday under the patronage of His Majesty King Abdullah to 18,000 jobs and training opportunities for Jordanians in a whole range of economic sectors.

The campaign, dubbed "we are all partners", is implemented by the labour ministry in a partnership with over 120 national agencies from the public and private sectors.

As of today, the ministry's offices nationwide will start receiving job-seekers to apply for jobs in transformational industries, wholesale and retail business, transport, communications, restaurants and hotels, construction and other sectors.

In a speech to kickstart the campaign, Minister of Labour Nidal Qatamin said the recruitment programme, including jobs for university degree holders, would ensure a good income for men and women with social security and medical insurance.

The scheme involves training for direct employment and recruitment in priority sectors in the labour market indentified by studies and meetings the ministry has held with concerned agencies and stakeholders.

"The campaign is part of the national employment strategy launched last June to thousands of jobs for Jordanians together with rehabilitation and training in priority sector professions," the minister told a ceremony attended by HRH Princess Sumayah Bint Al Hassan and Prime Minister abdullah Ensour.

Qatamin said that as Jordanians begin to put behind the so-called "shame culture", the ministry began to search for work opportunities for both genders in the private sector, the key pillar of the national economy.

He said a series of recent meetings with leading businessmen and managers of giant enterprises was a solid ground for awareness of (the tough) national conditions and had offered valuable thoughts to address unemployment.

The minister said that "these encounters and partnerships" had culminated in the signing of employment deals to find 18,000 real jobs in all professions at the technical and administrative levels inside and outside the country.

He stressed the importance of the campaign in view of rising jobless numbers and the public sector's inability to absorb new recruits as well as the impact of the global economic crisis.

These factors, he said had led the government to realize the pressing need to change the labour concept for Jordanian youth and shift to training and vocational work to eradicate unemployment, now running at 12.9%.

An estimated 600,000 foreign or non-Jordanian labourers currently work in the Kingdom.