Navigating Economic Resilience: Unemployment, Inflation, and Growth in Jordan's Post-Pandemic Landscape

Jordan's unemployment rate during the COVID-19 pandemic was analyzed alongside inflation, economic growth, and financial development trends spanning from 1980 to 2021. The ARDL approach was applied to assess annual data on unemployment (UN), GDP per capita growth, financial development (FD), and inflation (INF). Results showed that higher economic growth tends to reduce unemployment, suggesting that initiatives in both private and public sectors for economic expansion could lower joblessness. Conversely, findings indicated a direct positive relationship between unemployment and inflation rates. As a result, higher inflation will also result in higher unemployment. Because rising prices for goods and necessities can aggravate poverty and lead to a deteriorated socioeconomic condition that puts a strain on the State, Jordan should prevent excessive inflation. The study add to the canon of knowledge by utilized both of economic growth and financial development linkage with unemployment since most of previous studies used one of these proxies. The study will also provide recommendations and suggestions for policy makers to adopt some policies that enhance the reduction of the high unemployment rate.