The High Commission for Planning (HCP) is sounding the alarm: the Moroccan job market continues to deteriorate under the persistent effect of drought.
Between the first quarter of 2023 and the first quarter of 2024, the overall volume of employment recorded a drop of 80,000 positions, with a loss of 159,000 positions in rural areas, mainly unpaid, offset by the creation of 78,000 positions in an urban environment.
Only the agriculture, forestry, and fishing sector escapes this gloomy trend, showing a loss of 206,000 jobs. All other sectors of the Moroccan economy have contributed to job creation, underlines the HCP in its note published this Friday, May 3. The services sector stands out as the largest provider of jobs, with 63,000 jobs generated, followed by industry with 34,000 jobs and construction with 25,000 jobs.
Despite this slight creation of urban jobs, unemployment continues to rise. The volume of unemployment at the national level increased by 96,000 people, distributed between 59,000 in urban areas and 38,000 in rural areas, to reach a total of 1,645,000 people. The national unemployment rate now stands at 13.7%, an increase of 0.8 points compared to the first quarter of 2023. This increase is more pronounced in rural areas (+1.1 points) where the unemployment rate reached 6.8%, compared to 17.6% in urban areas (+0.5 points).
Young people, graduates, and women remain the most affected by unemployment. The unemployment rate for young people aged 15 to 24 remains particularly high at 35.9%, while that of graduates stands at 20.3% and that of women at 20.1%.
Five regions alone account for 71.2% of unemployed people in Morocco. The Casablanca-Settat region comes first with a share of 25.4%, followed by Fès-Meknes (13.4%), Rabat-Salé-Kénitra (13%), Oriental (10%) and Tangier- Tetouan-Al Hoceima (9.4%).
