The unemployment challenge in Jordan: The issue of employment elasticity of growth

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to examine the employment elasticity of growth in the Jordanian economy and for that purpose the paper uses time series analysis and annual data (1992–2019) for real gross domestic product (GDP), total employment, total female employment, and total male employment. The results indicate the existence of a long-run relationship between total employment and growth and total male employment and growth. For female employment, such a relationship does not exist. In addition, elasticities of total employment and total male employment are equal to +0.399 and +0.377 respectively. Our findings add to the existing literature which is still inconclusive, while some report either a positive or a negative relationship, others report no relationship in the first place