The job market and unemployment - findings of the BBC poll conducted in Amman, Jordan

To inform the debates, the BBC Arabic commissioned opinion polls in five territories measuring young people's opinions on the subjects of the debates.

To inform the BBC Arabic debate, The job market and unemployment which takes place on Monday 27 February at Amman University, BBC Arabic commissioned Ipsos to conduct an opinion poll.

The present report summarizes the main findings of the poll which discussed the causes of unemployment, the estimated perceived Unemployment Rate, and suggested solutions to tackle the issue of unemployment in Jordan.

Telephone interviews were conducted between 23 and 28 January with 500 residents of Amman, males and females, aged 20-30, with a university degree or currently studying in university who are, respectively students or employees in their first job.

A selection of findings follows:

IT/computer science, engineering, and business administration were the three most reported areas of study by respondents - around 16, 11 and 10% respectively said they majored in these subjects.

A clear majority - over 85.5% - of those respondents in Amman who are were still studying or currently not working were positive about finding a job related to their field of study. Most of employed respondents - well over 80% - generally felt that their current job was related to their field of study to a large extent.

While half of the respondents felt they had the right level of qualification, nearly 45% said they were overqualified for the jobs they were holding.

The highest proportion of the respondents - around 47% - felt that employers give preference to the American educational system. It was followed by the Jordanian (33 %) and the British (17%) educational systems.

Job satisfaction, work environment and conditions and the salary were seen by all the respondents as the most important factors when selecting a job - around 28, 21 and 20% respectively. Almost a quarter of currently employed respondents saw salary as an important selection criterion when selecting a job whereas 37% of those without jobs said work environment was of utmost importance to them. A higher percentage of women reported job satisfaction and work environment as the most important selection criteria, while a higher percentage of men selected salary and personal development.

On average, the respondents estimated the unemployment rate in Jordan to be at around 40%. The majority of the respondents thought it was over 30%. On average, women estimated the unemployment rate in Jordan to be at around 45% which was considerably higher than men who estimated it at around 34%.

The respondents were almost equally divided between those who thought the unemployment rate has decreased and those who thought it had increased in the past two years (around 46 and 50% respectively).

The highest proportion (37%) of the respondents believed that poor attitude towards certain jobs was the main cause of unemployment in Jordan. The two other most reported causes were lack of jobs and economic factors (around 20% each).

Anxiety and depression ( over 30%), widening of social gaps (over 20%) and family problems (17%) were perceived by the respondents to be the most important effects of unemployment in Jordan.

When asked what would be the most effective methods to tackle unemployment in Jordan, nearly a quarter of the respondents said creating more job opportunities would solve the problem. Second most favoured solution was for people to be less selective in choosing their jobs (around 23%) and to decrease dependence on foreign labour (over 18%).

By far, the highest proportion (39%) of the respondents believed that nepotism is the most effective method of finding a job. Newspaper ads and recruitment agencies appeared second and third most popular methods of finding a job (around 21 and 11 % respectively).

The highest percentage of the respondents - over 40% - knew up to five people who they believe have obtained their jobs through nepotism. On average, the respondents knew at least 10 people who obtained their jobs through nepotism.

When asked about the main reasons for using nepotism to find a job, around 17% thought it was the fastest method of finding a job while a similar proportion explained it by scarcity of work opportunities.

Society, individuals, and to a lesser extent Government were almost equally perceived to be responsible for eradicating the use of nepotism in finding jobs (around 35, 31 and 27% respectively).