Unemployment was down 0.5 percentage points y-o-y in the second quarter of the year: Egypt’s unemployment rate fell to 6.5% of the total workforce in the second quarter of this year, falling 0.2 percentage points from the previous quarter, according to data released by state statistics agency Capmas. Unemployment was down 0.5 percentage points from the same period last year after having fallen for the last three quarters.

Unemployment among women crept up: The jobless rate among women rose by 0.8 percentage points to 17.3%, remaining unchanged from the same period last year. For men, unemployment fell to 4.2% during the quarter, down from 4.4% in the previous quarter and down 0.6 percentage points y-o-y.

And slightly fewer young people are out of work: The rate of unemployment among 15-29 year-olds accounted for 64.2% of all jobless people in 2Q 2024, marginally down from 64.5% in the previous quarter. Capmas doesn’t provide an official rate of youth unemployment.

REMEMBER- The headline rate doesn’t tell the whole story: The unemployment rate doesn’t count people of working age who are not looking for work or who are unable to work. The labor force participation rate — which counts everyone aged 15-64 either in work or actively looking for work — came in at 43.4%, down from 43.5% during the previous quarter and up from 43.0% in 2Q 2023.

Ahead of schedule: The cabinet had plans to reduce the unemployment rate to 6.5% by the fiscal year 2026-2027 and to 6.1% by 2030.

DATA POINT: Egypt’s labor force stood at around 31.4 mn during 2Q 2024, up 0.1% from 1Q 2024. Men made up 82.1% of the workforce while women made up the remaining 17.9%.

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