Egypt’s jobless rate climbed 0.2 percent in the first quarter of 2013 compared to the last quarter of 2012, reaching 13.2 percent of the country’s total labour force, according to state-run statistics body CAPMAS.

CAPMAS’s quarterly report, released on Wednesday, attributed the increase in the unemployment rate to the stricken economy, which has seen frequent hits since the 2011 revolution.

According to CAPMAS, the number of working Egyptians reached 23.6 million, with the total labour force registering 27.2 million.

The number of unemployed increased by 63,000 in Q1 2013.

The unemployment rate among male workers reached 9.7 percent, while among women it was 25 percent.

Job seekers in urban areas shrunk by 1.2 percent in the first three months of the current year to 15.7 percent, compared with 16.9 percent of the total labour force in the previous quarter.

The jobless rate in Egypt’s rural areas stands at 11.3 percent.

The agriculture and fishing sectors employed the largest number of workers in the period between January and March at 6.3 million.