Morocco: job growth failing to reach youth and women

Morocco’s latest employment figures have revealed a mixed picture; with overall job growth coupled with continued challenges for the country’s women and youth. 

Recent data from the Moroccan High Commission for Planning, has revealed a number of improvements to Morocco’s labour market in the first quarter of 2025, with the creation of more than 282,000 jobs, according to the Moroccan government friendly Atalayar on May 8th. 

This marks a 0.4% rise in employment rates. 

While the success remains modest, it marks the largest increase since 2022, and demonstrates some recovery from this time last year where 80,000 jobs were lost. 

However, this improvement has not been evenly spread, with higher unemployment rates  persisting particularly among Morocco’s burgeoning youth. 

Growth has been particularly concentrated in large cities, where the country has experienced recent development, at the expense of rural areas, with declines in unemployment at double the rate in large cities compared to less populated areas. 

The commission’s data also reveals stark differences when comparing men and women, and between different ages groups.

Unemployment among women remains much higher, at 19.9%, compared to 11.5% among men, as more than twice as many men than women entered the labour market in the latest quarter. 

Meanwhile, unemployment among those aged 15 to 24 has risen alarmingly, by 1.8 points so that it now sits at 37.7%. 

This contrasts to the figures released for other age groups showing a 0.8% drop in unemployment for 25-34 year olds, and a 0.5 % drop for 35-44 year olds, and a 0.6% drop for over 45s for which the rate now stands at 3.9%.

As well, unemployment fell by 0.9% for those with technical qualifications.

These figures demonstrate that Morocco’s youth are continuing to miss out on employment opportunities due to their comparative lack of experience. 

This critical situation has been recognised by the government, who recently announced a new initiative to boost the employment of young non-graduates via subsidies to employers.

Finally, the data also shows an increase in underemployment, referring to those working fewer hours than desired or in jobs that don’t match their qualifications which rose from 1.07 million to 1.25 million.

The jump was particularly noticeable in rural areas where it went from 2.3% to 14.8%, compared with a 1% increase in urban areas to 10%. 

Overall, despite employment gains at the national level, rapidly rising youth unemployment, as well as the persistent gender gap represent significant causes for concern for Morocco’s lawmakers.

Atalayar/Maghrebi