Title: The mismatch between labour market needs and education: the example of Jordan

Authors: Loiy Bani Ismail; Mohammad Alawamleh; Saro Giacaman; Kamal Jamal Alawamleh

Addresses: Business Administration Department, American University of Madaba, P.O. Box 2882, Amman 11821, Jordan ' Business Administration Department, American University of Madaba, P.O. Box 2882, Amman 11821, Jordan ' Business Administration Department, American University of Madaba, P.O. Box 2882, Amman 11821, Jordan ' Faculty of Law, University of Petra, P.O. Box 961343, Amman 11196, Jordan

Abstract: This paper seeks to explore the relationship between education and labour market needs in Jordan, in addition to how this relationship is affecting the unemployment rate. This study uses a regression on data collected from the Jordanian Department of Statistics and analyses the data through the SPSS program. The result shows the relationship between university graduates' unemployment and Jordanian universities booming enrolment, yearly growth rate of GDP is also counted as a factor. This paper demonstrates how the aforementioned gap affects the unemployment rate for bachelor degree holders, in addition to the national unemployment rate. Moreover, the research recommends some solutions and methods that the government and universities should implement, in order to reduce the rate of unemployment so as to close the gap between education and labour market needs.

Keywords: unemployment; education; universities; graduates; labour market; majors; industries; economy; saturated major; Jordan.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBEX.2020.109977

International Journal of Business Excellence, 2020 Vol.22 No.2, pp.262 - 281

Received: 18 Feb 2019
Accepted: 16 Mar 2019
Published online: 30 Sep 2020 *

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