
A man working in a local chocolate factory. Reuters
The number of unemployed people in the first quarter of 2022 declined to 2.145 million, including 1,220 million males and 925,000 females. This is compared to 2.2 million unemployed people in the corresponding period of 2021, the agency said.
The workforce, which includes employed and unemployed citizens, has reached 29.8 million persons in the first quarter of 2022 compared to 29.6 million in the corresponding period of 2021, CAPMAS said.
The number of workers increased by 297,000 and the number of the unemployed people decreased by 55,000, CAPMAS said, noting that the overall labour force rose by 242,000 individuals.
Unemployment among males aged between 15 to 29 years reached 63 percent. In urban areas, unemployment reached 10.5 percent while it hit 4.5 percent in the countryside, according to the agency.
Minister of Planning and Economic Development Hala El-Said said on Sunday that the recently-announced decrease in unemployment is another indicator of positive outcomes achieved by the state.
In a press conference held on Sunday to discuss the government’s plan to cope with the global economic crisis, she affirmed that the state is working on ensuring sustainable growth and decent employment rates.
The minister pointed out reform plans and programmes are always reviewed around the clock.
Over the past few years, Egypt has witnessed the inauguration of many mega development projects as well as infrastructure projects that have contributed to reducing unemployment, especially amid significant annual population growth.
Last month, Egypt’s Minister of Manpower Mohamed Saafan said the country’s recent national development projects created a multitude of job opportunities and contributed to reducing the rate of unemployment.
Egypt managed to secure around a million job opportunities annually despite sharp population growth, Fakhri Al-Fekki, head of the parliament’s economic committee said in January.
The IMF said in October that Egypt needs from 700,000 to 800,000 job opportunities each year, which can be met by the private sector in case of increasing productivity, enjoying access to new markets and offering different types of finance.
Also, the state provided as many as 320,848 job opportunities abroad for Egyptians over the course of 2021 and the first quarter of 2022 despite the pandemic, Saafan said in April.
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