Three years after his graduation, and he remained without a job, Jordanian Ali Al-Shamayleh, who holds a PhD, was forced to work in distributing food orders on his bicycle.
Al-Shamayleh finished his undergraduate studies in economics, and worked in several companies other than his major with a low salary, so he decided to complete his master's and doctoral studies to improve his living situation, financial income and job opportunities offered to him.
He traveled to India to study for a doctorate in 2015, after he obtained a master's degree in economics from the University of Mu'tah in southern Jordan, and stayed there for 3 years, and returned to Jordan with a doctorate degree in international economics, with great joy in the position of a professor at a university.
Unemployment for university students
Over a period of 3 years, Al-Shamayleh (30 years) applied for employment to public and private universities, colleges and companies, and told Al-Jazeera Net, which he met in Karak, southern Jordan, “I was not approved for a job, so I went back to apply for some jobs with a bachelor’s degree, hiding a doctorate until I could find a job. Well, unfortunately, I wasn't so lucky. "
Al-Shamayleh tried to travel to work abroad, but he hit the obstacle of asking for practical experience in universities or companies, and in order to obtain experience for a year, "I applied to teach in universities for free and without financial compensation in order to obtain experience, but unfortunately I did not find anyone to employ me for free." Painfully says.
A message to decision makers
Al-Shamayleh shares his suffering with 30 PhD holders in his area of various specialties who are looking for work, and the difficult living conditions forced him to work on a bicycle to distribute food and orders.
Shamayleh says, "I went out to work on a bike while I hold a PhD in international economics not out of love for this work, but rather to deliver a message to decision-makers in my country that unemployment levels among PhD holders have reached levels unacceptable to reason," calling on "to search for solutions to the unemployment problem of PhD holders." It is available and exists, but we need an official to hear it from us and work to implement it. "
"While we young people are looking for work, there are hundreds of university professors who are over sixty, some of them in seventy, who are still clinging to jobs in universities, refusing to retire and make room for the new blood of young people," he speaks heartily.
Certificate burning
Unemployed doctorate holders organized several sit-ins to demand job opportunities, and a number of the protesters burned their university degrees after their inability to find suitable work.
And the problem of unemployment of PhD holders in Jordan - according to the unemployed doctor Yasser Al-Ajarmah’s interview with Al-Jazeera Net - increased the unemployment of faculty members in the Gulf countries with the dispensation of the services of Jordanian professors, and the retreat of contracts with faculty members to work in universities in the Gulf states, which was It opens job opportunities for them.
PhD holders are calling for limiting employment in public and private universities for Jordanians, and considering them closed to non-Jordanians, with the necessity to reduce the retirement age of university professors and faculty members to 65 years, which opens job opportunities for new graduates.
Saturated specialties
On the other hand, the Civil Service Bureau (a government institution) has a different opinion, as the main reason for the unemployment of graduates holding doctoral degrees - according to a source in the office - is their studies of stagnant or saturated majors with graduates, and it does not have a request for appointment in public universities, especially the humanities and other disciplines.
The source confirms to Al-Jazeera Net that the university education outputs in its various stages, including the doctoral degree, unfortunately do not correspond to the local labor market in need of technical technical specialties, in order to meet the demands of employers, especially the industrial and technological sectors.