Photo credit: UN Women/Christopher Herwig

Imagine being a young person full of potential, yet two in every five of your peers cannot find a job. In Jordan, this is the reality for youth aged 15-24. Behind these numbers are even greater disparities: Jordan’s women labor force participation rate is the third lowest in the world, and unemployment among Syrian refugee youth reaches 84%.

High levels of youth unemployment have a ripple effect on every aspect of society. Individually, young people may experience a long-term “scarring” effect—a phenomenon in which early career setbacks can lead to subsequent spells of unemployment, lower wages, and a decline in mental health. At the societal level, youth unemployment can slow economic growth and undermine social cohesion and civic engagement.

Education for Employment (EFE) is tackling youth unemployment in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region by equipping young people with in-demand skills, preparing them for success in their job search or entrepreneurship endeavors, and connecting them to jobs. Through its Job Training and Placement (JTP) program, a job skilling and matching program designed to prepare youth for success in the labor market, EFE-Jordan places 72% of all graduates in employment within six months, 62% of whom are young women.

Alongside these successes, challenges remain for implementers of youth employment programming in the MENA region, particularly in securing desired rates of job placement and retention for women and youth living as refugees. These populations face unique barriers to finding and maintaining quality employment, such as deeply entrenched gender norms, high transportation costs, and bias against refugees. Furthermore, women and refugees in Jordan faced greater setbacks compared to other populations during the COVID-19 pandemic, making their economic recovery even more critical.

Clearing the way: strategies to help underserved youth overcome barriers to employment

Behavioral science helps us understand how the environment around people shapes their decisions and actions. This understanding informs solutions that address the subtle factors in their environment that might be creating barriers to reach their goals. EFE and ideas42 took a behavioral approach to identify the barriers that were making it challenging for some youth to find and retain jobs in Jordan, developed relevant solutions, and are testing their impact.

In order to understand the barriers facing young women and refugees in achieving their employment goals, we conducted interviews and focus groups with 41 young people who graduated from the EFE-Jordan JTP program, including women and refugees. We also consulted employers. These consultations generated the following recommendations for tailoring programming to meet the needs of young women and refugees:

1. Support a wider variety of employment opportunities for women

Women expressed internalized social norms about jobs that were viewed as suitable for their gender, and were seeking roles that were aligned with community values. Many women who were interviewed for the study preferred working in women-only environments, not working late hours, and working flexible hours. These preferences and restrictions sometimes created barriers for them to accept available opportunities in the labor market. For example, one young Syrian woman expressed that although she had job opportunities after the training, she had trouble finding an opportunity that aligned with her specific location and situation:

“I did not apply to any jobs after the training because they were inappropriate in terms of working hours and working location. My husband did not want me to work in a distant salon and with the kids, it was hard leaving them home for long hours.”

Many programs already promote opportunities that are aligned with the abovementioned preferences that women’s families, communities, and sometimes women themselves, hold.

However, the range of jobs that many women and their families are open to considering is often limited, as many jobs do not meet the preferred criteria. In addition, even after women secure their first opportunity through the program, these restrictions continue to affect their potential for advancement.

Within these constraints, job matching and skills training programs can play an important role in helping women secure and thrive within their first opportunity. Programs can broaden women’s choices in the short term by identifying job openings in sectors and roles that align with the abovementioned preferences and by directly engaging employers and women’s families to build mutual trust and a sense of safety around the work environment. At the same time, these programs can continue to offer roles in non-traditional sectors that some women are interested in exploring. EFE-Jordan has engaged in both approaches with significant success, which has made it possible to support women in securing employment in a variety of sectors and work environments, ranging from positions in all-women workplaces to non-traditional opportunities in plumbing and other vocational trades.

2. Support women in navigating the expectation to balance work and family needs

After women graduated from the training program and started a job, they faced role strain –  the pressure to balance overlapping work and family needs – without adequate family or employer support. They also faced pressure from families to leave their job if they did not meet the expectations their families or communities had for fulfilling home responsibilities. These insights are not new, but they highlight a persistent gap in support that employers, families and communities can provide to women to help them thrive in their careers. After successfully starting a job through the program, one young woman shared:

“I left the job because my husband was always saying that I need to take better care of my house and my kids… When I used to work, my husband would start shouting and say that it’s not acceptable to stay this late at work.”

Job training and matching programs can support women with additional training, particularly in the area of negotiations, to navigate such conflicts. They can also provide mentorship as a source for ongoing support after graduation. In addition, programs can explore ways of communicating with women’s families, communities, and employers to address restrictive gender norms and negotiate greater flexibility for women. As referenced above, EFE-Jordan has had success in this approach, inviting women’s families to join information sessions about the training and proposed employment locations.

3. Help refugees build a positive mindset to navigate behavioral and systemic obstacles

In our research in 2023-2024, we found that employers were reluctant to hire Syrian refugees because they required a costly work permit, which was difficult to obtain, and placed restrictions on their contract duration and the sectors in which they could work. This narrowed available opportunities. These realities of the job market reminded youth of their refugee status, which they associated with limited agency or a lack of control over their future. As a result, many young refugees developed low expectations and aspirations regarding their job search. One Syrian man we spoke to highlighted the need to accept inadequate compensation because of his refugee status:

“I searched for a job and found a cashier vacancy in a restaurant so I interviewed and they took me, although the salary was very low. It was a good job; that’s why I accepted it. I needed a source of income. It was a good experience to add to my CV but the salary was not good as I am Syrian.”

Recent regulations have increased the cost of work permits, further limiting employment opportunities. This heightens an existing structural barrier, and can further engender lack of confidence and feelings of loss of control. In this new reality, programs should shift their offerings and consider ways to affirm strengths and accomplishments of refugee youth to help them chart meaningful careers despite these obstacles.

Identifying support young job seekers need

Not all individuals benefit equally or similarly from social programs, but underserved groups face a set of interrelated challenges in accessing the opportunities and support they need to thrive in the workforce. EFE provides customized support to women and refugees in their job search in order to help them overcome these challenges. By applying a behavioral approach, we have uncovered some of the underlying factors that contribute to persistent barriers, providing fresh insights on potential pathways to address them. These learnings call for continued innovation in fine-tuning support for traditionally underserved youth, ultimately supporting them in building stable and fulfilling careers.