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Rabat – Between the first quarter of 2019 and the same period of 2020, the Moroccan economy created 77,000 new jobs. This comes from the creation of 80,000 jobs in urban areas and the loss of 3,000 jobs in rural areas, a study by Morocco’s High Commission for Planning (HCP) revealed.
The service sector created a total of 192,000 jobs between March 2019 and March 2020, and the industry sector generated 23,000 new jobs.
Meanwhile, the sector of agriculture, forestry, and fishing lost 134,000 positions and the construction field 1,000 jobs.
Despite the new jobs created, the number of unemployed people in Morocco increased by 208,000, including 165,000 in urban areas and 43,000 in rural areas, bringing the total count of unemployed people to 1,292,000.
The increase brought Morocco’s unemployment rate up to 10.5% from 9.1%. The rate climbed from 13.3% to 15.1% in urban areas and from 3.1% to 3.9% in rural areas.
The unemployment rate increased the most among young people aged 15 to 24, with a 3.9% increase, followed by 25- to 34-year-olds (2.3%), graduates (1.9%), and men (1.6%).
The national unemployment rate remains higher among women, with 14.3%, compared to men (9.3%), and among young people aged 15 to 24 (26.8%) compared to people over 25 years old (8.2%). The rate is also significantly higher among people who have formal training or an education diploma (17.8%) compared to those without official accolades (3.6%).
Half of Morocco’s unemployed population (50.7%) are still looking for their first job, while 30.4% lost their job due to a layoff or suspended activity at their previous workplace.
Two-thirds of the country’s unemployed population (66.1%) have been unemployed for more than one year.
Morocco’s active population, aged over 15 years and working or actively looking for a job, increased by 2.4% between 2019 and 2020, reaching 12,249,000 people.
Five Moroccan regions host 72% of the country’s active population. The Casablanca-Settat region comes first, with 22.7%, followed by Marrakech-Safi (13.4%), Rabat-Sale-Kenitra (13.4%), Fez-Meknes (11.4%), and Tangier-Tetouan-Al Hoceima (11.4%).
Five regions also host three-quarters of Morocco’s unemployed population. Casablanca-Settat hosts 26.2% of unemployed Moroccans, followed by Rabat-Sale-Kenitra (14.9%), Fez-Meknes (12.8%), the Oriental region (11.6%), and Tangier-Tetouan-Al Hoceima (9.5%).
In terms of regional unemployment rates, the Oriental region comes first, with 18.8%, followed by the three southern regions of Guelmim-Oued Noun, Laayoune-Sakia El Hamra, and Dakhla-Oued Ed Dahab (16.7%).
The Casablanca-Settat (12.4%), Fez-Meknes (11.8%), and Rabat-Sale-Kenitra (11.8%) regions also have unemployment rates that are higher than the national average.
