Unemployment rate hit 10% in Q3 2018

CAIRO – 15 November2018: Egypt’s unemployment rate declined 1.9 percent during the third quarter of 2018 to 10 percent, compared to the same quarter of 2017, according to the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS).

On a quarter on quarter basis, unemployment rate increased 0.1 percent from 9.9 percent in the second quarter of 2018.

The report revealed that the size of the workforce reached 29.215 million people (including 23.447 million males and 5.768 million females).

CAPMAS said that the number of jobless people reached 2.920 million (including 1.602 million males and 1.318 million females), representing 10 percent of the total workforce.

During the first quarter of 2018, the unemployment rate declined 1.4 percent, compared to 12 percent in the same period of 2017.

Head of Sustainable Development Unit at the Ministry of Planning, Howaida Barakat, stated in September that Egypt's unemployment rate witnessed an unprecedented decline, recording 11.3 percent in 2017/2018.

She added that this rate is expected to reach 8.4 percent in 2022.

In 2017, Egypt’s unemployment rate slipped to 11.8 percent, compared to 12.5 percent in 2016.

Egypt’s budget seeks to lower the unemployment rate to 10.4 percent with an inflation rate of 13 percent.

Egypt 2030 Vision aims to reduce unemployment from the current percentage to 4 percent.

Planning Minister Hala el-Saeed previously said that Egypt aims to provide about 750,000 job opportunities in 2018/2019 by developing the absorptive capacity of the labor market to gradually provide 870,000 opportunities in 2021/2022.