The Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) said that the unemployment rate in Egypt increased 0.3 percent during the third quarter of this year to reach 7.8 percent, compared to a 7.5 percent unemployment rate recorded during the second quarter and down by 2.2 percent compared to the same quarter of the previous year.
The number of unemployed climbed to 2.2 million, representing an increase of 118,000 from the second quarter in 2019 and down 708,000 from the same quarter of the previous year.
In a report released on Thursday, CAPMAS indicated that the unemployment rate of 15-19-year-olds has reached 12.1 percent, with unemployment of 20-24-year-olds standing at 39.8 percent. For the 25-29 age group, the unemployment rate is slightly lower at 25.9 percent, while unemployment among 30-64- year-olds stands at 22.2 percent.
The rate of urban unemployment rose to 10.6 percent of the total urban labor force, while the unemployment rate in the countryside fell to 5.6 percent of the total rural labor force.
The agency pointed out that the percentage of unemployed people with average and above average qualifications stood at 43.8 percent, with unemployment among university graduates and people with higher qualifications reaching 44.8 percent.
CAPMAS pointed out that the number of those employed nationwide stood at 26.1 million people, including 19 million employees and 2.4 million employers. The agency added that 3.201 million people identify as self-employed.
The agriculture and fishing sectors recorded the highest number of employees at 5.3 million workers, or 4.601 million men and 766,000 women.
The number of employees in the construction sector stood at 3.6 million workers, with the wholesale and retail trade sector employing 3.5 million, the manufacturing sector employing 3.4 million, and the transport and storage sectors employing 2.1 million.
For its part, the manufacturing sector attracted 157,000 workers, with the transport and storage sector attracting 100,000 workers and the health and social sectors attracting 72,000 workers.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
