Unemployment rate drops to 10.6% in 1Q2018 from 11.3% a year before

Unemployment falls to 10.6% in 1Q2018, down from 11.3% in the comparable period last year, CAPMAS announced in its quarterly report. Overall, the labor force grew slightly by 0.1% y-o-y to 29.2 mn people in 1Q2018. Far more women than men remain unemployed: The unemployment rate for women was 22.0% in the quarter against 7.3% for men, stats show. Youth unemployment stood at 75.2% for the quarter. “The rate has been steadily dropping in recent months amid a program of economic reforms,” Reuters notes. The country’s unemployment levels had dropped to 11.8% at the end of 2017, down from 12.5% at the end of the previous year.