Egypt's unemployment rate records 7.9% in 2020: CAPMAS

CAIRO – 23 June 2021: Egypt’s unemployment rate stabilized during 2020 at 7.9 percent, recording the same rate of 2019, according to the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS).

CAPMAS said in a statement, Wednesday, that the unemployment rate among young people between the ages of 15 and 29 reached 15 percent of the total workforce in the same age group, compared to 16.7 percent in 2019.

It added that the unemployment rate for young people in the age group (15-29 years) with intermediate, above-average, university qualifications and above amounted to 19.4 percent of the total workforce in the same age group in 2020, compared to 22.8 percent in 2019.

The CAPMAS pointed out that the labor force estimated at 28.45 million people in 2020 (23.68 million males, 4.774 million females), and the urban labor force amounted to 12.49 million people, while it amounted to 15.96 million people in the countryside.

The number of unemployed people reached 2.26 million unemployed in 2020 (1.41 million male unemployed, 846,000 female unemployed) compared to 2.22 million unemployed in 2019, marking an increase of 34,000 unemployed by 1.5 percent.

The male unemployment rate reached 6 percent in 2020 compared to 4.8 percent in 2019, while the female unemployment rate reached 17.7 percent in 2020 compared to 21.7 percent in 2019.

The unemployment rate in urban areas was 11.4 percent, compared to 5.2 percent in the countryside, as a result of the availability of more job opportunities in the countryside.

The unemployment rate among urban males was 8.7 percent, and among rural males was 3.9 percent, while the unemployment rate among urban females was 22.7 percent, compared to 12.6 percent among rural females as a result of female participation in agricultural activities in the countryside.

The percentage of the unemployed who had previously worked reached 58.3 percent of the total unemployed, compared to 31.3 percent in 2019.

The employed estimate amounted to 26.19 million employees in 2020 (22.27 million male employees, 3.928 million female employees) compared to 26.12 million employees in 2019 (22.11 million male employees, 3.99 million female employees), while the estimate of urban employees reached 11.06 million employees, and 15.13 million workers in the countryside.

The rate of contribution to the labor force reached 41.5 percent of the total population (15 years and over) in 2020, compared to 42.2 percent in 2019, and the rate of contribution to the labor force among males was 67.4 percent in 2020, while it amounted to 67.3 percent in 2019.