Dr. Hamad Kasasbeh

Every year, as International Workers' Day is marked, attention turns to the value of work and its role in building the economy. Yet today, the key question is no longer how much we work, but rather: what do we produce? The issue is no longer the number of workers, but their productivity and the ability of work to generate real value added that supports growth, employment, and income levels.

Since 2011, economic growth in Jordan has remained modest, rarely reaching levels sufficient to absorb new entrants into the labor market. At the same time, unemployment has stayed relatively high, reflecting a weak link between growth and job creation. This points to a structural imbalance in the nature of growth, closely tied to low labor productivity and the limited ability of the economy to translate available resources into tangible outcomes.

Estimates suggest that the Jordanian economy is operating below its productive capacity, with a gap of around 20% between actual and potential output. This gap implies that a significant share of economic potential remains untapped, and that many jobs that could have been created simply do not materialize.

Successful economies did not begin by increasing the number of jobs, but by increasing the value produced by each worker. These economies focused on aligning education with labor market needs, directing investment toward high value-added sectors, and strengthening the use of technology.

In Jordan, however, productivity has yet to take its natural place at the center of economic policy discussions. Policies have often focused on partial measures that do not address the core issue.

Reorienting policies toward productivity means shifting from a quantity-driven economy to a value-driven one. It also means redefining success not by the number of jobs alone, but by their quality and their contribution to sustainable growth.
In this context, Labor Day should not be merely a moment of celebration, but an opportunity to revisit a fundamental question: what kind of work do we want?

What Jordan needs today is not just more jobs, but more productive ones. Productivity is not a choice that can be postponed. It is the line that separates an economy that stands still from one that builds its future.