Over 308k economic entities operating in Jordan

AMMAN The Department of Statistics (DoS) on Monday released the results of the 2018 General Economic Establishment Survey which it carried out between October 1, 2018, and March 31, 2019.

Director General of the DoS Qasim Zubi, said at the launch that the survey is the fourth to be conducted by the department, with previous ones launched in 1999, 2006 and 2011.

The aim of this survey is to provide high-quality, up-to-date data on existing economic establishments, said Zubi.

The total number of establishments in Jordan was stated to be 308,721 establishments, of which operating establishments accounted for 58.5 per cent, followed by vacant establishments at 23.1 per cent, then supportive-activity establishments at 8 per cent.

The percentage of establishments suspended from work or under processing was 7.2 per cent, and the remaining 3.2 per cent of the establishments were governmental.

The director general noted that the survey was carried out electronically in all its stages by collecting data on tablets and then processing the data on newly devised software that the DoS has recently put to use.

We are trying to eliminate the human factor in processing the data so that there is a lower chance of mistakes, he added.

Amman ranked highest in terms of number of establishments, with 44.7 per cent of the total, followed by Irbid with 15.6 per cent and Zarqa with 14.6 per cent.

The governorates with the lowest number of establishments were Ajloun with 2.1 per cent, Maan with 1.6 per cent and Tafileh with 1.2 per cent.

It is only logical that the capital would be the hub for economic activity while the governorate with the least amount of people, Tafileh, would have the lowest number of economic establishments, Zubi commented.

In accordance with the rise in population and increased financing options, around 85.2 per cent of the operating economic establishments were established after the year 2000, whereas the establishments created during the years 1991-2000 amounted to 9.6 per cent and the percentage of establishments founded in 1990 and earlier was 5.2 per cent, he noted.

Around 76.9 per cent of workers in economic establishments are male, and 23.1 per cent are female, while Jordanians working in economic establishments constitute 87.3 per cent of the total workers and non-Jordanian workers comprise 12.7 per cent, Zubi added.