1.1 Introduction

The Department of Statistics (DOS) carried out the second round of the 2006 Employment and Unemployment Survey (EUS) during May 2006. The survey covered about 10000 households Nation-wide. The sample households were selected according to scientific bases, using a stratified multi-stage cluster sampling design. It is noteworthy that the sample represents the national level (Kingdom), Governorates, the three Regions (Central, North and South), and the urban and rural areas.  This report stresses the survey objectives and methodology including the implementation stages as well as the design and selection of the sample.  The survey was carried out in several stages, namely: the preparatory stage, which includes the survey design and geographical preparation; the fieldwork stage; the data processing stage, which covers editing, coding and data entry; and the tabulation and data dissemination stage.

The importance of this survey lies in that it provides a comprehensive data base on employment and unemployment that serves decision makers, researchers as well as other parties concerned in policies related to the organisation of the Jordanian labour market. 

The present report contains a description of the survey methodology as well as the tabulations of the survey’s main findings, grouped in 10 categories.

      1.2 Objectives of the Survey     

    The main objectives of the survey are to:

      a.   Identify the demographic, social and economic characteristics of the population and manpower; 

      b.  Identify the occupational structure and economic activity of the employed persons, as well as their

           employment status; 

      c.   Identify the reasons behind the desire of the employed persons to search for a new or additional

             job; 

      d. Measure the economic activity participation rates (the number of econmically active population

           divided by the population of 15+ years old).   

      e.   Identify the different characteristics of the unemployed persons;

      f.    Measure unemployment rates (the number of unemployed persons divided by the number of

            economically active population of 15+ years old) according to the various characteristics of the

            unemployed, and the changes that might take place in this regard.                  

      g.  Identify the most important ways and means used by the unemployed persons to get a job, in

           addition to measuring durations of unemployment for such persons; and  

      h. Identify the changes overtime that might take place regarding the above-mentioned variables.

The sample of this survey is based on the frame provided by the preliminary results of the Population and Housing Census, 2004. For the purposes of sample design, rural or urban in each of the twelve governorates in Jordan was considered as an independent stratum. The frame excludes the population living in remote areas (most of whom are nomads), as well as those living in collective dwellings, such as hotels, hospitals, work camps, prisons, and the like. 

Since 2000, the DOS is using the Sample Rotation Method (SRM) in conducting its employment and unemployment surveys program.  By this method, 50 percent of the sample units of one round are included in the next round, and the other 50 percent are replaced, and so on in subsequent rounds. This procedure is applied in order to provide more accurate data regarding unemployment rates, as well as the main features (landmarks) of each quarter of the year at governorate level. This allows the possibility of identifying changes between any quarter and the subsequent ones. This is in addition to the possibility of making comparisons among quarterly results of different years.  Since 2002 till now, the rotation has been implemented at the block level.

The sample size for this survey consisted of 664 Primary Sampling Units (PSUs) (blocks).  Out of each unit, 15 households were selected as Ultimate Sampling Units (USUs) using a systematic random procedure.

with the multiple of 4.  This design, copes with the previous one for the purposes of making comparisons. The PSUs were selected using the Probability Proportionate to Size (PPS) with systematic selection procedure. The number of private households, in each cluster served as its weight.  In the second stage, a constant number of households (15 households) was selected in a systematic way from each PSU selected in the first stage.

Table 1. Sample Size and Distribution by Region and Governorate

The results of the fieldwork indicated that all sample households were visited (Table 2). The number of successfully completed interviews was 9569, that is 96.1 percent of the total sample households. Among the reasons of un-successful interviews (although three callbacks were made) the table shows that 1.5 percent of the dwellings were closed at time of the visit.