The Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) announced that the unemployment rate during the third quarter of 2016 (from July to September) reached 12.6 percent of the total manpower, compared to 12.5 percent in the second quarter of the same year.
During this quarter of each year, fresh graduates of intermediary and higher education join the labor market, the CAPMAS statement said.
The total workforce was estimated by the agency at 28.8 million workers; an increase of 289,000 people or one percent, when compared to the previous quarter of 2016.
Compared to the third quarter of 2015, the increase reached 814,000 persons or 2.9 percent.
The unemployed workforce stood at 3.6 million or 13.6 percent of the total manpower, with an increase of 80,000 people compared to the previous quarter.
The ratio of unemployed among males stood at 8.7 percent of the total male manpower, compared to 8.5 percent in the previous quarter; and 9.3 percent in the third quarter of 2015.
The ratio of unemployment among females made 25.9 percent, compared to 25.6 percent in the previous quarter and 24.9 percent in the third quarter of 2015.
Unemployment rate in urban areas stood at 14.2 percent of the total manpower in urban areas, compared to 14.1 percent in the previous quarter of 2016. It reached 15 percent in the third quarter of 2015.
In rural areas, unemployment stood at 11.4 percent, compared to 11.2 percent in the previous quarter and the third quarter of 2015.
The majority of the unemployed are youth. The ratio of unemployed youth in the age group from 15 to 29 years of age stood at 81.4 percent; of those, 11.8 percent are in the age group from 15 to 19 years, 27.5 percent in the age group from 20 to 24 years, and 42.1 percent in the age group from 25 to 29 years.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
