The statistically significant correlation between poverty and unemployment rates in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and Provinces in the periods of 2002 and 2006, 2008 and 2010

Abstract

Hajar T Nassar, Fawaz Ratroot

This research aims to measure the statistical significant correlation between poverty and unemployment rates in all the provinces of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan for the years of 2002, 2006, 2008, and 2010. Throughout this period of time, the General Statistics Directorate (GSD) carried out four field studies for each year mentioned previously to determine the rate of poverty through the surveys of family income and expenses. In addition, the GSD, relying upon the World Bank and national team assigned to this project since 2002, used the same research methods which included determining the caloric needs of each person (in light of varying caloric needs for each specific person) and calculating the cost of providing its need. Moreover, the GSD simultaneously circulated four other surveys for each of the years surveyed in the previous study to determine the employment status of individuals between 15-24 years old. (This particular survey divided the employed and unemployed in the following categories: Workers, Private Property Owners, Partial Private Property Owners, Family Caregivers, Formerly Employed Unemployed, Never Employed, Students, Landlords and Pension Beneficiaries. The goal of this study is to determine the statistical relationship between the poverty and unemployment rates in order to evaluate the prudence of current theoretical approaches and national planning paradigms to fight poverty. Furthermore, the research methods employed in this study rely upon data analysis of official poverty and unemployment surveys distributed in all of 12 provinces of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan for the past four years (2002, 2006, 2008, 2010) in addition to data collected through the Spearman coefficient, which calculates the relative correlation. The research results found almost no significant statistical correlation between unemployment and poverty rates in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan between 2002-2010 with the exception of Al- Zarqa province. Four major conclusions were derived from the research results: 1) Poor persons in Jordan are not unemployed, but rather the income and capital of the poor does not suffice the costs of basic living needs. 2) The unemployed are not poor persons and do not live with poor families. 3) The faultiness of current theoretical approaches to overcome poverty and unemployment such as the endless cycle theory, the effective social participation approach, and the integrated social policies approach. 4)The erroneousness of the current national planning paradigm for strengthening productivity and fighting poverty such as employing poor unemployed persons to eradicate poverty and hunger (Millennium Development Goals), providing financial assistance to increase the income of poor persons(The Jordanian National Agenda). Moreover, these goals are also outlined in the Jordanian Government's National anti-Poverty, Welfare, and Social Protection Plan 2012-2013 and the National Jordanian Strategy to fight Poverty 2013-2020. Overall, the results and conclusions of this study benefit multiple groups of people including researchers and scholars and Jordanian decision makers in the field of social development.