AMMAN — There are around 798,000 people aged 60 and older in Jordan, representing 7.5 per cent of the Kingdom’s total population, Solidarity is Global Institute (SIGI) said on Tuesday, citing the Department of Statistics’ (DoS) figures related to employment and unemployment survey for 2019.

There is a “large discrepancy” between the elderly population’s labour-force participation rates for men and women, with only 4.8 per cent of the elderly workers are women, SIGI said in a statement.

Only 34,000 elderly people are active in the labour force, including only 1,700 women, the institute said, adding that early retirement and compensations have “imposed restrictions” on elderly women’s economic participation.

Eighty-six per cent of Jordanian women aged 15 and above are economically inactive, SIGI said citing unemployment rate for the first quarter of 2020.

The “Buthaynah” coalition, affiliated with SIGI, called for creating job opportunities for the elderly and investing in their experiences to support the national economy.

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