CAPMAS: Unemployment down to 12.7%
Egypt’s official unemployment rate eased to 12.7 percent in the first quarter of 2016, down from 12.8 percent the previous quarter, state statistics agency CAPMAS announced Sunday.
The government’s target for the current fiscal year was to bring unemployment to 11.9 percent.
Youth remain the hardest hit by unemployment. Unemployment stood at 31.3 percent for people aged 25-29, while the average rate for youth aged 15-29 was 27.3 percent.
Labor activists and experts believe that official statistics minimize the true extent of joblessness.
“CAPMAS calculates unemployment rates based on the numbers of those actively seeking employment — primarily at the offices of the Ministry of Manpower," labor activist Fatma Ramadan explained to Mada Masr in November. “What typically happens is that if a jobless worker doesn’t find a job opportunity through the ministry, they don’t keep coming back.”
Private sector businesses surveyed for the Purchasing Managers’ Index have reported job shedding for 10 months in a row amid a broader economic downturn.
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