Egypt’s unemployment rate declined to 7.3 percent in the third quarter of 2020, down from 7.8 percent in the same quarter of 2019, the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS) announced Sunday.

The labour force increased to 28.171 million in the third quarter of 2020, at a growth rate of 5.6 percent compared to the same quarter of 2019, while unemployment decreased to 2.061 million, declining by 151,000 Y-o-Y, according to CAPMAS.

CAPMAS ascribed the decline to returning back to daily activities in the wake of the easing of restrictions previously imposed to contain the Covid-19 pandemic.

Egypt’s unemployment rate surged to 9.6 percent in the second quarter of 2020 (April-June) due to the economic consequences caused by Covid-19, according to CAPMAS.

Egypt’s unemployment rate in Egypt is projected to reach 9.30 percent by the end of this quarter, ending in December, according to Trading Economics (TE) global macro models and analyst expectations.

Looking ahead, TE estimates unemployment in Egypt to stand at 8.3 percent in 12 months time, while in the long-term, the rate is expected to trend around 8.6 percent in 2021 and 8.3 percent in 2022.

Egypt's unemployment rate leaped to 9.6 percent in the second quarter of 2020 — highest jobless rate since the third quarter of 2018 — compared to 7.5 percent in the same period of 2019 and 7.7 percent in the first quarter of the year.

The jobless rate surged in both urban areas (12.5 percent compared to 9.3 percent in the second quarter of 2019) and rural areas (7.4 percent compared to 6.1 percent).

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