Casablanca — The High Commission for Planning (HCP) has released the first results from its new workforce survey EMO2026, replacing the long-running national employment survey (ENE).
The survey puts the strict unemployment rate at 10.8% nationally, while it climbs to 13.5% in urban areas and drops to 6.1% in rural ones. Young people aged 15 to 24 are the most affected, with a rate of 29.2%. Among women, the rate reaches 16.1%, compared to 9.4% for men.
Out of Morocco’s working-age population of 27.775 million, only 11.617 million are part of the active labor force. Of those, 10.364 million hold paid employment and nearly 62% live in cities, while women account for just under 20% of paid workers.
The survey introduces a broader way of measuring labor market pressure compared to the previous survey model. Rather than relying on a single unemployment figure, it tracks four separate composite indicators. The first is the strict unemployment rate alone, at 10.8%. The second combines that with underemployment due to insufficient working hours, reaching 16.6%.
The third adds in the potential workforce, people outside the labor force who have an interest in paid work but face conditions limiting their availability or active search, bringing the rate to 17.1%. The fourth and broadest measure gathers all three together and stands at 22.5% nationally, 24.8% in urban areas, and 18.3% in rural ones.
The gender gap is stark throughout. The labor force participation rate stands at 66.4% for men and just 17.5% for women. The broadest measure of labor underuse reaches 31.1% for women, against 19.9% for men. For young people aged 15 to 24, the composite figure reaches 45.3%.
In terms of which sectors absorb paid workers, services lead with 49.1% of employment, followed by agriculture, forestry and fishing at 24.5%, industry at 13.6%, and construction at 12.7%.
The EMO2026 expands the previous survey’s sample from 90,000 to 135,000 households per year and updates its methodology in line with International Labour Organization (ILO) standards from its 19th, 20th, and 21st international conferences. HCP notes that results are not directly comparable to previous ENE data.
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