Morocco’s preoccupying jobless economy

Morocco’s economy is growing without generating enough employment, according to the World Bank’s 2026 Country Growth and Jobs Report, published on April 28th. The situation has been described as “preoccupying” by French newspaper Le Monde as the kingdom faces a widening gap between its ambitious development goals and the reality of its labour market.

For over a decade, Morocco’s growth has been fueled primarily by massive public investment and capital accumulation, which accounted for 85% of growth since 2010. However, this strategy has hit a wall. Despite the influx of capital, productivity has remained stagnant. Total factor productivity has contributed only marginally to the national GDP, leaving Morocco trailing behind high-growth peers like Vietnam and India.

The microeconomic data paints an even more challenging picture. The World Bank identifies a massive “allocative inefficiency” where capital is not flowing to the most productive sectors. In a reversal of standard economic logic, larger Moroccan firms are 27% less productive than their smaller counterparts, suggesting that market survival is often dictated by market power rather than innovation or efficiency.

The human cost of this stagnation is stark. The national labour force participation rate has plummeted from 53.1% in 2000 to just 43.5% in 2024. Between 2020 and 2024, the economy generated 370,000 fewer jobs per year than what was required to keep employment levels stable.

The crisis is particularly acute for women and rural populations. Female labour participation has fallen to 19%, representing one of the largest gender gaps globally. Meanwhile, climate change has decimated the agricultural sector; severe droughts led to the loss of 1.2 million rural jobs, a 23% decline, between 2015 and 2024.

Morocco’s New Development Model aims to double per capita GDP by 2035, but experts warn that these targets are at risk without radical reform. The World Bank suggests that the government must pivot from state-led investment to a more dynamic, private-sector-driven model.

Maghrebi.org, Le Monde, World Bank