15 Nov 2019; MEMO: Egypt’s unemployment rate rose to 7.8 per cent in the third quarter of 2019, compared to 7.5 per cent in the previous quarter, state-run Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS) announced yesterday.
Unemployment in Egypt amounted to 10 per cent of the total labour force in the third quarter of 2018.
CAPMAS pointed out that the North African country’s labour force numbered 28.406 million people in the third quarter of 2019, compared to 28.069 million in the previous quarter.
“Some 2.212 million people of working age are unemployed in Egypt, marking a 7.8 per cent unemployment rate,” the state agency said, noting that in 2018 there were only 118,000 unemployed individuals during the same time.
The Egyptian government has repeatedly said that it would continue to work to attract more foreign investment and lower unemployment by improving the business environment. However citizens have seen no change on the ground.
In July, CAPMAS announced that the poverty rate in the country reached 32.5 per cent in the year 2017-2018, much lower than the World Bank’s report in May that some 60 per cent of Egypt’s population is either poor or vulnerable and inequality is on the rise.
