Women Face 73% Probability of Inactivity in Morocco’s Labor Market

Rabat – Women have a 73% likelihood of staying unemployed in Morocco, compared to 7.5% of men, a new report from the High Commission of Planning (HCP) shows.

Based on an intersectional study, the report argues that “the traditional distribution of social roles between genders and family responsibilities within the household (socially assigned more to women than men) deeply influences women’s participation in the labor market.”

The results of the study show that the disparity in access to the job market is even more pronounced among married women, whose probability of being inactive reaches 81.9%, compared to only 3.1% among married men.

The likelihood of women remaining inactive is also higher among younger segments, with young women aged 25 to 34 being nearly 80% likely to be unemployed, compared to 3.3% for their male counterparts.

Age was found to be a strong factor determining the likelihood of women’s employment in Morocco. HCP data point out that the involvement of women and men in the labor market depends on their life cycle.

For women, the probabilities of inactivity take the form of a U-shaped curve, where they tend to decrease from a probability of 83% at ages 25 to 26 years old to reach a probability of 72% at the age of 43 to 44 years, before increasing again to 77.6%.

Meanwhile, for men the probability of inactivity increases with age, going from 5% for the youngest 25-26 years old to 24% for those aged 57 to 59 years. The study was based on data from 2021.

The study further points out that Morocco’s labor market is under strain to absorb the rising number of job seekers in the country.

Between 2000 and 2023, the activity rate dropped from 53.1% to 43.6%. This decrease is even more worrying for women, given the continuous decline in their activity rate, which dropped from 28.1% in 2000 to 19% in 2023; remaining significantly lower than that of men at 69% in 2023.