Morocco’s Unemployment Rate Jumps to 11.9%, Youth and Urban Areas Hit Hardest

In rural areas, the unemployment rate reached 5.9% and 15.8% in urban areas, the HCP said in a note on the labor market situation in 2020. This note reveals that for men, the unemployment rate increased by 2.9 points to 10.7% compared to 2.7 points to 16.2% for women. As for graduates, this rate has risen by 2.8 points to 18.5%, while it is 6.2 points to 31.2% for young people aged 15 to 24.

Overall, the number of unemployed people reached 322,000, rising from 1,107,000 to 1,429,000 unemployed, i.e. a rate of 29% between 2019 and 2020. In urban areas, this increase is 224,000 unemployed against 98,000 in rural areas, the HCP specified, stressing that this increase is solely attributable to the unemployment of people who have lost their jobs.

Regarding the increase in underemployment in its two components, it went from 1,001,000 to 1,127,000 people between 2019 and 2020 with 619,000 in the cities and 508,000 in the countryside, thus going from 9.2% to 10.7% at the national level, i.e. 10.1% in urban areas and 11.6% in rural areas.