Major projects push Egypt’s unemployment rate to lowest level in 30 years: Report

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Major national projects have forced Egypt’s unemployment rate to retreat to the lowest level in over 30 years, according to a report by the Egyptian Cabinet published on September 20th.

The unemployment rate recorded 7.2% in the second quarter (Q2) of 2022, compared to 7.3% in Q2 2021, the report showed.

The report highlighted that the labor force increased by 3% to 29.99 million individuals in Q2 2022 from 29.12 million people in the same quarter last year.

Moreover, the indicators showed that the number of workers in the three-month period ended June 30th reached 27.83 million in Q2 2022, up by 3.1% from 27 million workers in the same quarter of 2021.

Meanwhile, the number of the unemployed increased by 1.4% year-on-year (YoY) in Q2 2022 to 2.15 million individuals from 2.12 million, the report pointed out.

The report also revealed the major projects that contributed to boosting operation rates, which included the New Delta project, the integrated fish farming project of Ghalyoun at the Suez Canal Authority (SCA), the national veal project being financed with over EGP 7 billion, and the poultry farming projects with around EGP 100 billion in investments.

The construction of over a million residential units under the social housing projects have also offered thousands of job opportunities, along with the Roubiki Leather City which offers about 35,000 direct and indirect jobs, the report added.

Furthermore, the report referred to the role of the Egyptian Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (MSMEDA) in providing EGP 41.9 billion in soft loans to support micro and small-sized projects and offering around 2.7 million jobs in the period from July 2014 to August 2022.

Additionally, the Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone) has offered about 100,000 direct jobs, while Decent Life initiative offered more than 450,000 jobs, according to the report.

Regarding the outlook, the international agency Fitch expects the unemployment rate in Egypt to continue declining over the coming years to record 7.3% in 2023, 7.2% in 2024, 7% in 2025, and 6.8% in 2026, the report noted.