Morocco Sees Surge in Unemployment Claims, Raising Fraud Concerns

The figures communicated on Monday by the Minister of Labor during the oral question session at the House of Representatives show that 900,000 employees from more than 134,000 companies have filed their applications to benefit from the flat-rate allowance of 2,000 dirhams for the month of April. According to the ministry, "this number remains provisional as these declarations will be subject to verification in order to ensure compliance with the new eligibility criteria imposed by the Economic Monitoring Committee".

The Ministry of Labor indicates that for the month of March, the compensation operation showed a balance of "808,199 employees on leave, out of a total of 2.6 million. Two out of three companies had to resort to the support of the special fund, out of a total of 216,000 companies affiliated with the CNSS. Similarly, 61% were directly affected by the covid-19 crisis, i.e. a total of 131,955 production units," specifies the same source.