Morocco: Slight Decrease in Unemployment Due to Recruitment Recovery in Services and Construction

The recent job creation in Morocco has resulted from an increase of 220,000 paid positions and a decrease of 54,000 unpaid jobs. The services sector contributed 94,000 new jobs, while construction added 90,000. The industrial sector created 29,000 positions, but agriculture, forestry, and fishing lost 47,000 jobs. As a result, the national unemployment volume decreased by 55,000, reaching 1,629,000 individuals. The overall unemployment rate fell from 13.6% to 13.1%. In urban areas, the rate declined from 17% to 16.3%, while in rural areas, it dropped from 7.4% to 6.9%. Despite this improvement, the highest unemployment rates are still observed among youth aged 15 to 24 (38.4%), women (21.6%), and graduates (19%). Additionally, the number of underemployed individuals rose by 133,000, totaling 1,199,000. Consequently, the underemployment rate increased from 10% to 11.1% nationally, from 8.8% to 9.5% in urban areas, and from 12% to 13.8% in rural regions.