By Loubna Flah
Morocco World News
Casablanca, August 11, 2013
The High Commission for Planning (HCP) issued its latest report about unemployment in Morocco for the year 2013. The report reveals that the rate of unemployment has slightly increased in 2013.
According to the HCP report, there are more than 100 000 new job seekers in the job market. The unemployment rate reached 8, 8% compared to 8, 1% last year.
The HCP report reveals also that Moroccans aged between 15 and 24 are mostly affected by unemployment. For this category, unemployment soared from 17, 1% to 18, 4%. For unemployed graduates, the rate of unemployment jumped from 3, 5% to 4, 3%.
The HCP report reveals also that the active population is estimated to 11,900,000 for the second semester of the current year. More than 165,000 positions were taken up during this period.
The job opportunities created in the period between April and June 2013 seem to have favored more the recruitment of male job seekers with more than 50% positions offered. More job opportunities were taken up by male job seekers in urban areas and female job seekers in rural areas.
The agriculture sector, forests, fishing and industry provided a large number of job opportunities in 2013. Agriculture remains the sector that has created more job opportunities with 136,00 positions, an increase by 3,2% compared to 2012.
Industry and traditional craftsmanship provided 37,000 job opportunities, an estimated increase by 3%.
The building sector employability dropped by 3,7% with 38,000 positions lost. According to the HCP report, more than 100,000 unemployed people joined the inactive population in the period between April and June 2013.
Overall, young Moroccans aged between 15 and 24 are mostly affected by unemployment with an increase by 2,4% followed by unemployed graduates.
The analysis of the major characteristics of the active population reveals that 83,2% of unemployed people live in urban areas, 67,9% are aged between 15 and 29 while 24,6% are postgraduates.