Egypt's unemployment rate records 7.3% in Q2 of 2021: CAPMAS

CAIRO – 15 August 2021: Egypt’s unemployment rate recorded 7.3 percent of the total labor force during the second quarter of 2021, compared to 7.4 percent in the first quarter of 2021, marking a decrease of 0.1 percent, and a decrease of 2.3 percent during the same quarter of prior year, according to the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS).

CAPMAS clarified in a statement, Sunday, that the estimate of the size of the labor force recorded 29.115 million individuals, compared to 29.284 million individuals during the previous quarter, marking a decrease of 0.6 percent.

While the labor force in urban areas amounted to 12.981 million individuals, and it amounted to 16.134 million individuals in the countryside. At the gender level, the size of the male labor force reached 24.233 million individuals. As for females, it amounted to 4.882 million individuals.

The state-statistic body attributed this decline to the decrease in both the number of workers and the number of the unemployed, as the state continues to take some precautionary measures and issue a decision to reduce the number of workers with the beginning of the third wave of the Corona pandemic.

According to the agency, the number of the unemployed recorded 2.115 million unemployed persons, representing 7.3 percent of the total labor force (1.383 million males, 732 thousand females), compared to 2.155 million unemployed persons in the first quarter of 2021, with a decrease of 40 thousand unemployed at a rate of 1.9 percent, and a decrease of 459 thousand unemployed or 17.8 percent compared to the same quarter of the previous year.

The unemployment rate among males reached 5.7 percent of the total male labor force in the current quarter, while it was 5.6 percent in the previous quarter, compared to 8.5 percent in the same quarter of the previous year.

The female unemployment rate reached 15 percent of the total female labor force in the current quarter, while it was 15.9 percent in the previous quarter, compared to 16.2 percent in the same quarter of the previous year.

The percentage of the unemployed in the age group (15-29 years) during the current quarter was 68.4 percent, compared to 62.4 percent in the previous quarter.