Spatial Dimensions of the Unemployment Rate in Jordan 2008

Although many studies examined the existence of spatial pattern of unemployment in some developing and many developed countries in improving the prosperity or social status and reducing the inequalities in unemployment between areas of such country, there is still much work to be done. Some of these studies found spatial pattern for unemployment using different statistical techniques and geographical mapping. The question is raised whether such a spatial pattern exists in Jordan? The objective is to investigate the spatial structure of unemployment rate (UR) across different governorates to provide implications for policy makers, investigating the hot spots of UR and showing optical picture of UR. The study design is cross-sectional, where the data are collected for 12 governorates based on the census in 2008. A mapping using quartiles is used as a first step to conduct a visual inspection of UR. Two statistics of spatial autocorrelation, based on sharing boundary neighbours, known as global and local Moran's I, were carried out for examining the global clustering and local clusters, respectively. Out of 12, three governorates (Balqa, Zarqa, and Tafiela) are found as local clusters in UR. In conclusion, the UR varies in the visual inspection based on choropleth mapping across different governorates with black spots in the northwestern, central and southeastern part of the country. Statistically, no significant global clustering can be found, but several significant local clusters are found in the central and western part of the country.