Egypt’s unemployment rate has increased five-fold during the last four years, according to a report issued recently by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS). Now, there is one Egyptian unemployed among every eight Egyptians.
Unemployment was at 13 percent in 2014, while it was nine percent in 2010. Still, the rates vary between governorates. It reached it’s the peak in Port Said — the Suez Canal city — with 26 percent. While it does not exceed 3 percent in South Sinai, where most of Red Sea resorts are located.
Unemployment is a global problem. Still, it’s more severe here in Egypt,” said Mohammed Safan, the Minister for Manpower, during a TV show on Al-Hayat Channel. He said that “international rate is no more than five percent, but it reaches 13 percent in Egypt with 3.4 m jobless.
According to CAPMAS, the unemployment rate among men is an estimated 8.9 percent while the unemployment rate among women is 25.8 percent. Moreover, the urban governorates registered the highest rates of unemployment with 16.1 percent. The unemployment rate among secondary and university graduates was around 40 percent in the category of youth.
CAPMAS’ rate looks a bit conservative as the Arab Labor Organization and United Nations have estimated earlier unemployment in Egypt at 25 percent. The World Bank has also announced that decreasing unemployment in Egypt needs no less than 6 percent of economic growth in 2020. While it does not exceed 2.5 percent for now.
The unemployment rate has highly increased between July and September 2013 due to the political unsteady situation and violence raise, said a study by the World Bank.
The government data has already shown that between 700.000- 800.000 new job-seekers are entering the job market every year, which is more than the number of jobless people mentioned earlier by the minister.
