The Structure and Evolution of Employment in Jordan

This chapter examines changes in the structure and evolution of employment in Jordan over the past quarter-century. Using the detailed retrospective questions in the JLMPS, this chapter reconstructs the employment trajectories of individuals who have ever been employed. One of the main findings is that formal employment in Jordan is becoming more temporary in nature as employers attempt to achieve greater flexibility by providing definite-duration contracts or no contracts at all, while still providing social insurance coverage. This increasing precariousness of employment in the formal private sector is growing especially rapidly for female workers. Non-wage employment, whether in the form of being an employer, self-employed, or an unpaid family worker, is generally in decline in Jordan, with some limited evidence that individuals move into it after a few years of experience in informal-wage employment.