Rabat – Morocco’s national economy has lost a staggering 280,000 jobs in the past 12 months, with the overall rate of unemployment rising to 12.9% at the end of the first quarter of 2023, up from 12.1% a year earlier, according to a report from the Higher Commission for Planning (HCP).
In a quarterly report released last week, HCP data shows that rural areas lost 229,000 jobs, with the unemployment rate rising to 5.7% in the first three months of 2023, up from 5.1% the previous year.
Urban areas on the other hand have lost 51,000 jobs, pushing unemployment rates to 17.1%, up from 16.3%.
A breakdown by sector shows that the construction industry saw a creation of 28,000 jobs, while agriculture, forestry, and fishing bled 247,000 jobs and services lost 56,000 jobs.
Meanwhile, the industrial sector lost 10,000 jobs, with 28,000 jobs being created in industrial activities and 38,000 being lost in craft and similar activities.
As a result, the number of unemployed individuals in the country rose to 1,549,000 people, up 83,000 from the same period in 2022
Of those 83,000 newly unemployed people, 67,000 of them are in urban areas while 16,000 live in rural regions.
The report also unveiled that the rate of unemployment remains highest among young people aged 15 to 24 at 35.3%, college graduates at 19.8%, and women at 18.1%.
HCP data further shows that the number of individuals employed in suboptimal conditions has reached 513,000, representing 4.9% of the workforce.
The total number of underemployed individuals – individuals receiving insufficient income or experiencing a mismatch between training and employment – stands at 562,000, or 5.4%.
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