Rabat – Head of Government Aziz Akhannouch led a strategic meeting on Tuesday, April 29, to advance the country’s employment roadmap amid ongoing job insecurity across Morocco.
The session, held in Rabat, brought together key players to evaluate the government’s ongoing efforts to create jobs and ease the economic hardship facing many Moroccan households.
This second strategic meeting follows the launch of a government circular in February that laid out the framework for a national employment strategy.
The focus has now shifted toward delivering concrete results, especially for those most affected by unemployment: youth, women, and families living in rural areas.
Akhannouch noted the need for better coordination among ministries and institutions, insisting that only collective action could produce meaningful change. This project is meant to restore confidence and opportunity.
At the heart of the discussion stood several challenges. Rural youth continue to drift away from farming jobs. Women face persistent barriers to entering the workforce, particularly due to a lack of childcare services. And across the country, school dropout rates remain stubbornly high.
To respond, the government is looking to support young people in rural areas who want to launch agricultural ventures. Officials also plan to expand access to daycare centers, allowing more women to return to work. Regarding education, the goal is to cut dropout rates in half by strengthening “success-oriented” middle schools and extending programs that offer second chances to those who left school early.
Vocational training is also expected to see a boost under this new approach.
The roadmap, backed by a MAD 15 billion budget, outlines eight flagship initiatives designed to create jobs and reduce unemployment in a lasting way.
While the employment roadmap marks a necessary and commendable step, questions remain about whether it goes far enough to tackle Morocco’s deeper structural challenges, especially when it comes to women’s access to decent work.
Expanding childcare and supporting rural entrepreneurship are important moves, but without broader reforms to labor laws, wage equity, and protections in the informal sector where many women work, the root causes of exclusion risk remaining untouched.
The roadmap indicates a growing political will to address long-standing inequalities. Whether it succeeds will depend on how well ministries and institutions work together, and how quickly the promises made around the table reach the people who need them most.
