Friday, August 12th, is World Youth Day, and this year came under the slogan "Intergenerational Solidarity: Creating a World for All Ages," with the aim of hearing the message that there is a need to work across generations to achieve the sustainable development goals and to avoid leaving no one behind, as it is also intended to raise awareness of some of the obstacles to intergenerational solidarity. The Global Agenda on Sustainable Development recommended that countries around the world measure the proportion of youth not in education, training or employment, which is high among Jordanian youth.
The General Secretariat of the Supreme Population Council issues this briefing on youth enhanced by statistics from official accredited sources.

There are 2.2 million young men and women in Jordanian society, and they were born between 1998 and 2007 and constitute one fifth of Jordan's population.
Because Jordanian society is young, the number of young men and women will increase rapidly in the coming years because of the successive entry of 3.5 million children under the age of 15 into this phase.
It is not possible to prepare so many young people for the future and to endow them with knowledge, skills and risk protection without an education and training system that is responsive to their life needs and the needs of a changing labor market.
The percentage of young people seeking work in Jordan is high, and they constitute about 40% of the total unemployed in Jordan.
Every year at least 70 thousand (about 73 thousand last year) young people applying for the general Secondary School Certificate exam, especially the academic branch, fail.
Therefore, a very high percentage of males seeking work in Jordan have a sub-secondary education, which is 65% among all the unemployed and 62% among the Jordanian unemployed. They are thus suitable for immediate involvement in unskilled and untrained jobs, which are widely available in the Jordanian labor market.
Young people need to be nurtured, mentored and protected through the educational system in the following areas:
Valuing time and respecting work.
Protection against early marriage for girls before the legal age (in the last seven years, 15% of first marriages were for girls under the age of 18, and this percentage is much higher among refugees).
Speeding up married young people to have their first child before making sure that they are ready to assume the parental role and responsibilities, because they do not resort to ways to postpone the first pregnancy.
Tobacco use, especially among boys and young men, a WHO survey of the 13-15 age group indicated that about 35% of these boys and about 18% of girls had previously smoked cigarettes.
42% of current smokers in the 18-65 age group indicated that they started smoking before the age of 16.

The Ministry of Health classifies smoking as a risk factor for non-communicable diseases; 69% of men and 17% of women in the 18-44 age group use tobacco, and 29% and 9% of them use e-cigarettes, respectively.
Overweight and obesity (26% of young women 15-19 years and 40% of young women 20-29 years are overweight or obese).
Marital violence (about 23% of young women who have already been married report that they have experienced violence from their husbands).
The dangers of exposing young people of both sexes to harmful substances through unsafe use of the internet.
The dangers of vehicle accidents on the roads, statistics showed last year that the age group of 18-35 years is the most affected group in traffic accidents, accounting for 48% of all injured in traffic accidents, and the most involved in human injury accidents and 44% of all drivers involved.
The dangers of using dangerous substances and drugs.
The Supreme Population Council's interest in Youth Day comes from the expectation that Jordan will reach the stage of demographic opportunity after the third decade of this century, which is expected to witness a decline in the proportion of children under the age of 15 and an increase in the proportion of young people and adults of working age, which will bring with it many benefits to society and the family, represented by a decrease in the dependency ratio and increasing opportunities for family savings and thus investment in the education and training of children and their health, increasing maternal participation in the labor market and improving family income.

The future of any nation is in the hands of its youth, and therefore investments are being made in preparing them to achieve the desired hope. That is why we pointed out at the beginning of this briefing the current and future size of the youth segment and the need to protect and prepare them to develop themselves, their families and society. It is not possible to prepare so many young people for the future and provide them with knowledge, skills and ways to protect against risks without an education and training system that is responsive to their life needs and the needs of the changing labor market.

It is a matter of concern that the percentage of unemployed youth is high in Jordan, and a very high percentage of them have sub-secondary education and are therefore suitable for immediate involvement in jobs that do not require skills and training and are available in abundance in the Jordanian labor market. Fortunately, today we are witnessing a remarkable demand from young people to work in several sectors that were the preserve of expatriate workers. Not only are there concerns about youth unemployment, but this briefing pointed out a number of dangers that undermine the expected role of youth in development and the economic and social consequences of these dangers.