The unemployment rate has increased from 11.4% to 13.5% between Q3 of 2022 and Q3 of 2023, as the number of unemployed individuals reached 1,625,000. This translates to a one-year increase of 18%, according to Morocco’s Statistics and Forecasts Office (HCP).
Upon further analysis, the report showed an uptick in the jobless rate from 15% to 17% in urban areas and from 5.2% to 7% in rural areas.
Unemployment rates remain highest among young people aged 15 to 24, at 38.2%, among women at 19.8%, and among graduates at 19.8%.
The unemployment rate among graduates increased by 2.1 percentage points, surging from 17.7% to 19.8%. Almost Counterintuitively though, non-graduates experienced a rise in unemployment by only 1.4 percentage points, from 4.1% to 5.5%. Speculation might dictate that job search frustration–in the way of refusal by graduates who see themselves as too “overqualified” to accept low-paying jobs–enters into the equation here.
During the same period, the percentage of people unemployed for less than one year rose from 31% to 33.7%. Consequently, the average duration of unemployment decreased from 33 months to 31 months.
Half of the unemployed individuals (50.1%) experience this situation due to factors such as completing or discontinuing their studies (38.1%) or reaching working age (12%).