Rural areas in Morocco lost a sweeping 80,000 jobs in 2024 as drought continued to grip the country’s rainfall-dependent agriculture sector, according to a new report from the Statistics Office (HCP).
Robust growth in the labor market in urban areas, however, offset the shrinking labor market in rural Morocco. Overall, the national economy added 82,000 jobs at the end of 2024, with the rural losses having been offset by the creation of 162,000 jobs in urban areas.
The hardest-hit sectors were agriculture, forestry, and fishing, which shed 137,000 jobs nationwide. Rural areas bore the brunt of these cuts, losing 146,000 jobs, while urban centers managed to gain 9,000 in the sector.
The downturn follows a troubling trend, given that rural employment had already shrunk by 157,000 jobs the previous year.
As rural jobs disappeared, unemployment in these areas climbed from 6.3% to 6.8%, a sharper increase than in urban regions. The total number of unemployed rural workers rose by 15,000, contributing to a national unemployment rate of 13.3%.
Young workers and women faced particularly difficult conditions, with youth unemployment soaring to 36.7% and women’s unemployment rising to 19.4%.
The service sector was the primary driver of the nation’s overall growth, generating 160,000 jobs, mostly in cities. The industrial sector also expanded, adding 46,000 positions, with the bulk of them in urban areas.