Unemployment rate falls to 9.1%: One million unemployed in Morocco
9 May 2011
Read by 1476 persons
It was at 10% at the end of March 2010: 103,000 net jobs were created in one year. These jobs were entirely created in two sectors: construction and services. Good news: Unpaid work is declining in favor of paid employment.
Job creation is still mainly in the construction and service sectors. The latest labor market figures from the High Planning Commission (HCP) highlight this reality once again. Between the first quarter of 2010 and the first quarter of 2011, the 103,000 net jobs created were entirely in these two sectors.
At first glance, it seems paradoxical that a sector like construction, hard hit by the crisis, created the most jobs. However, we know that, on the one hand, only housing was affected by the crisis - public works continuing their dynamism - and, on the other hand, a significant part of job creation was in rural areas: 86,000 jobs compared to 65,000 in urban areas. In other words, self-construction in rural areas and the construction of roads and rural tracks are the main sources of these 86,000 jobs.
In the service sector, on the other hand, the 55,000 net jobs created, mainly in commerce, were exclusively in urban areas; in rural areas, 19,000 jobs were lost.
Agriculture, with the creation of 26,000 jobs in urban areas and a loss of 86,000 jobs in rural areas, showed a negative balance of 60,000 jobs, representing a 1.4% loss in the sector's employment volume.
As for industry, it created no jobs whatsoever; it even lost jobs in both urban (-30,000) and rural areas (-3,000). The economic crisis was undoubtedly a factor in this “sterility”, but it must be admitted that this phenomenon is not recent, but structural. The weakness of the country's industrial base (hence the Emergence Plan) and the increase in productivity in existing industries appear to be the main factors in the sluggishness of employment in this sector.
The 15-24 age group benefited most from the decrease in unemployment
The 103,000 net jobs created in twelve months (a rolling year between the end of March 2010 and the end of March 2011) are the balance between job creation and destruction (or losses): 126,000 net creations in urban areas and 23,000 losses in rural areas.
An interesting trend to note: paid employment is increasing, while unpaid employment is decreasing. This explains the significant job losses in rural areas where unpaid employment is most prevalent, mainly consisting of what are called family helpers, i.e., people who do farm work. Thus, paid jobs created amounted to 133,000, including 119,000 in cities and 14,000 in rural areas. At the same time, unpaid employment decreased by 30,000 jobs, resulting from the creation of 7,000 unpaid jobs in cities and the loss of 37,000 jobs in rural areas.
In this configuration, the unemployment rate at the end of the first quarter of 2011 stood at 9.1% compared to 10% in the same period of 2010. In volume, the number of unemployed decreased by 9% (102,000 fewer unemployed) from 1,139,000 in the first quarter of 2010 to 1,037,000 in the corresponding quarter of 2011. The age group that benefited most was young people aged 15-24 living in cities, whose unemployment rate fell by 2.3 points, and, to a lesser extent, adults aged 35-44 in rural areas (-0.8 points).
However, these improvements shown by the employment and unemployment statistics must be put into perspective. As the HCP survey shows, they are obtained at the cost of a slight deterioration in underemployment figures. The underemployed population (working in a position requiring lower qualifications than their training) increased by 2.5% to 1,245,000 people, a 12% underemployment rate instead of 11.8% previously. Although it has slightly decreased from 12.9% to 12.7%, underemployment is more prevalent in rural areas, where job opportunities are scarcer. But in cities too, this phenomenon seems to be on the increase: 11.3% compared to 10.7% previously.
Is this one of the factors that has reduced unemployment among graduates? In cities, at least, this decrease in unemployment among graduates is significant (17.8% compared to 19% in 2010), which would be, at least in part, at the origin of the increase in underemployment.
Ultimately, Morocco's economic structure is still dominated by the service sector, where jobs, outside of financial services and administration, are characterized by a certain precariousness. Nevertheless, note the upward trend in paid employment: 76.7% compared to 76.2% in the first quarter of 2010. This increase is not due to an increase in salaried employment, quite the contrary, since it decreased by almost 2 points (55.9% instead of 57.7%) but to the increase in self-employment (44.1% instead of 42.3%).
Published May 7, 2011
Posted online May 9, 2011
Lavieeco.com
Job creation is still mainly in the construction and service sectors. The latest labor market figures from the High Planning Commission (HCP) highlight this reality once again. Between the first quarter of 2010 and the first quarter of 2011, the 103,000 net jobs created were entirely in these two sectors.
At first glance, it seems paradoxical that a sector like construction, hard hit by the crisis, created the most jobs. However, we know that, on the one hand, only housing was affected by the crisis - public works continuing their dynamism - and, on the other hand, a significant part of job creation was in rural areas: 86,000 jobs compared to 65,000 in urban areas. In other words, self-construction in rural areas and the construction of roads and rural tracks are the main sources of these 86,000 jobs.
In the service sector, on the other hand, the 55,000 net jobs created, mainly in commerce, were exclusively in urban areas; in rural areas, 19,000 jobs were lost.
Agriculture, with the creation of 26,000 jobs in urban areas and a loss of 86,000 jobs in rural areas, showed a negative balance of 60,000 jobs, representing a 1.4% loss in the sector's employment volume.
As for industry, it created no jobs whatsoever; it even lost jobs in both urban (-30,000) and rural areas (-3,000). The economic crisis was undoubtedly a factor in this “sterility”, but it must be admitted that this phenomenon is not recent, but structural. The weakness of the country's industrial base (hence the Emergence Plan) and the increase in productivity in existing industries appear to be the main factors in the sluggishness of employment in this sector.
The 15-24 age group benefited most from the decrease in unemployment
The 103,000 net jobs created in twelve months (a rolling year between the end of March 2010 and the end of March 2011) are the balance between job creation and destruction (or losses): 126,000 net creations in urban areas and 23,000 losses in rural areas.
An interesting trend to note: paid employment is increasing, while unpaid employment is decreasing. This explains the significant job losses in rural areas where unpaid employment is most prevalent, mainly consisting of what are called family helpers, i.e., people who do farm work. Thus, paid jobs created amounted to 133,000, including 119,000 in cities and 14,000 in rural areas. At the same time, unpaid employment decreased by 30,000 jobs, resulting from the creation of 7,000 unpaid jobs in cities and the loss of 37,000 jobs in rural areas.
In this configuration, the unemployment rate at the end of the first quarter of 2011 stood at 9.1% compared to 10% in the same period of 2010. In volume, the number of unemployed decreased by 9% (102,000 fewer unemployed) from 1,139,000 in the first quarter of 2010 to 1,037,000 in the corresponding quarter of 2011. The age group that benefited most was young people aged 15-24 living in cities, whose unemployment rate fell by 2.3 points, and, to a lesser extent, adults aged 35-44 in rural areas (-0.8 points).
However, these improvements shown by the employment and unemployment statistics must be put into perspective. As the HCP survey shows, they are obtained at the cost of a slight deterioration in underemployment figures. The underemployed population (working in a position requiring lower qualifications than their training) increased by 2.5% to 1,245,000 people, a 12% underemployment rate instead of 11.8% previously. Although it has slightly decreased from 12.9% to 12.7%, underemployment is more prevalent in rural areas, where job opportunities are scarcer. But in cities too, this phenomenon seems to be on the increase: 11.3% compared to 10.7% previously.
Is this one of the factors that has reduced unemployment among graduates? In cities, at least, this decrease in unemployment among graduates is significant (17.8% compared to 19% in 2010), which would be, at least in part, at the origin of the increase in underemployment.
Ultimately, Morocco's economic structure is still dominated by the service sector, where jobs, outside of financial services and administration, are characterized by a certain precariousness. Nevertheless, note the upward trend in paid employment: 76.7% compared to 76.2% in the first quarter of 2010. This increase is not due to an increase in salaried employment, quite the contrary, since it decreased by almost 2 points (55.9% instead of 57.7%) but to the increase in self-employment (44.1% instead of 42.3%).
Published May 7, 2011
Posted online May 9, 2011
Lavieeco.com
