Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - Jordan’s unemployment rate has hit 18 per cent in the second quarter of the current year compared to 14.7 per cent during the same period in 2016, the state’s Department of Statistics (DOS) announced today.

DOS added that the unemployment rate for males amounted to 13.4 per cent against 33.9 per cent for females.

Around 26.6 per cent of the university graduates are still unemployed, the government department noted.

Jordanian job seekers suffer high competition with the Syrians, as they represent 1.2 million people out of a 9.531 total population. There are also some 636,000 Egyptians and other nationalities who play a major role in the country’s employment market.

Two months ago, the Jordanian government, in cooperation with the International Labor Organization (ILO) and UN agencies, began issuing work permits to Syrian refugees to work in specific sectors, including agriculture and real estate.

The government has also pledged, citing financial grants from foreign countries, to provide some 200,000 job opportunities for Syrian refugees in the coming years.

In 2016, the Middle Eastern country’s unemployment rate reached 15.8 per cent, compared to 13 per cent during the same period of 2015.

*MEM