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Rabat – While Morocco already has a high rate of unemployment, the trend is particularly dire among women who are more likely to opt out of the labor market than their male counterparts.
A new report from Morocco’s Higher Commission for Planning (HCP) shows that in 2022, 73% of the 15 million active population outside the labor force were women. HCP data further indicates that a sweeping 80% of Morocco’s female population of working age is outside the labor market.
Surprisingly, female labor participation rates dropped even lower in urban areas in the same period, with nearly 82% of women of working age outside the labor market. The number edged lower to 77% for rural areas.
On the overall state of employment in Morocco, the report shows that a quarter of Morocco’s population aged between 15 and 24, or 1.5 million nationwide, are not working, in school, or pursuing a degree in vocational training. 73% of them are women, with nearly 41% married and 68% degree holders.
Low female labor participation rates have long been a problem in Morocco. In fact, Morocco is the only country in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region where the rate of female labor participation has been on a gradual decline in recent years, World Bank data points out.
On the legal front, Morocco has made significant strides in advocating for women’s employment over the past few years. However, the most recent rankings place the country 167th worldwide in terms of female labor participation.
And with only 20% of the active female population in the labor force, Morocco is even falling behind countries with notorious records of women’s rights violations such as Saudi Arabia.
Because women are less likely to enter the job market, they are also less likely to have healthcare coverage or pensions.
The findings of this latest report confirm a distressing trend that earlier data from HCP have long indicated. In 2022, another HCP report found that almost 32% of women senior citizens in Morocco had no form of healthcare coverage. By comparison, the rate was 23% for older men.
