ESCWA Expects an Increase in the Unemployment Rate in Morocco

  • Rabat, Morocco
  • 2 February 2021
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The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) expects that the unemployment rate in Morocco will reach 15.2 percent during this year, an increase of 3.4 percent.

The Moroccan government had announced an integrated program to reduce the level of unemployment, by encouraging small and medium-sized companies to resume work in order to prepare their employment plans, which will necessarily take into account new data, including the pattern of remote work. But it is necessary to get rid of the effects of the epidemic. As for providing the tools to achieve that goal, especially the financing side, it will prepare the ground for a return to the pre-crisis achievements, but the task appears difficult and may require efforts over the years.

The current year’s budget includes many items to revive the sectors affected by the pandemic and help them gradually restore the pace of employment, but the dilemma for any company CEO lies in abandoning the competencies that he worked so hard to develop. The government also included a budget clause to employ a number of unemployed youth that may help absorb unemployment, which reached 11.8 percent at the end of last year, compared to 9.1 percent a year ago.

In parallel, Moroccan employment experts began to feel the way to revive the local labor market after it was affected, like other sectors, by the repercussions of the Coronavirus, which was one of the troublesome problems for the government in the way of implementing reforms.

With the aggravation of the economic crisis due to the precautionary measures taken to confront the epidemic, many male and female workers lost their jobs last year, especially in informal professions, a situation that began to change, slowly but surely, with the beginning of 2021, especially with the arrival of anti-virus vaccines.

Source (London-based Arab Newspaper, Edited)

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