World Bank has approved $112 million to finance the National Employment Programme (NEP) in Jordan to help its recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic by promoting private sector-led job creation targeting youth and women, Jordan’s Minister of Labour Nayef Stetieh said on Wednesday.
The NEP aims to enable more than 2,000 private sector firms to hire and train over 63,000 new employees, a third of them women. It plans to do this through a combination of government subsidies for wages, social security, and transport, as well as for structured on-the-job and classroom training.
Jordan’s persistently high levels of unemployment are driven by the limited capacity of its private sector to create more and better jobs. The private sector generates far fewer jobs than the number of new entrants into the labor force, and the public sector is not able to make up for the gap. Unemployment is also explained by the mismatch between the skills that workers bring to the labor market and the skills the private sector demands.
“The World Bank is supporting Jordan in its COVID-19 response efforts, including through this new employment initiative, and help strengthen private sector-led investment growth and job creation for an effective and resilient recovery,” said Saroj Kumar Jha, Mashreq Regional Director, World Bank Group. “On-the-job and classroom training under this new program will contribute to upskilling of Jordanians and achieving sustainable employment”.
The World Bank’s Country Partnership Framework for Jordan 2017–2022 highlights the need for stronger private sector-led growth and better employment opportunities for all.
By providing finance for government strategies to support the creation of more economic opportunities for women, Jordan’s new employment program is in keeping with the Bank Group’s Gender Strategy 2016–23, as well as Jordan’s Women Economic Empowerment Action Plan and its National Strategy for Women 2020–2025.