The unemployment rate in Morocco rose to 13.7 percent in the first three months of this year, compared to 12.9 percent during the same period last year, as confirmed by the High Commission for Planning in the latest news note on the situation of the labor market.
The delegation confirmed, within the same memorandum, that the number of unemployed people had risen to one million and 645 thousand people at the national level, in the period between the first quarter of 2023 and the first quarter of 2024, by 96 thousand people. Among them are 59,000 in urban areas, and 38,000 in rural areas.
According to the same source, the labor market lost 159,000 job opportunities in rural areas. While 78,000 jobs were created in the urban center, “reducing the total volume of employment by 80,000 positions.”
Commenting on these numbers, Abdel Razzaq Al-Hiri, director of the Laboratory for “Coordination of Studies and Research in Economic Analysis and Forecasts” at the University of Fez, said, “Unemployment is a dilemma for the national economy, and this rate is considered high at a time when the government program promised a large number of job positions and a high rate of unemployment.” Growth is able to mitigate this rate.”
Al-Heiri added, in a statement to Hespress: “It is true that the delegation’s numbers are due to a group of factors; Among them is the drought, which affected jobs in the agricultural and forestry fields to a greater extent, and then the weak purchasing power of citizens, which led to the weakening and bankruptcy of enterprises. However, public authorities are required to deal seriously and responsibly with this dilemma in order to search for the defects that prevent the creation of jobs. “.
The same economist stressed that the research “must focus on the defects of promising government programs; As jobs and opportunities, which prevented them from having a direct impact on creating jobs. Then reform the business environment, through tax reform and issuing the new investment charter, which is considered a qualitative revolution in the field of investment.”
The same university professor considered that “the time has come for an integrated and comprehensive policy that attempts to answer the problems of employment, growth, and encourage investment,” noting that this policy “must take into account the technological transformations that lead to the growing use of modern technologies in the workplace and the elimination of labor.” Then the territorial nature of creating job positions to involve actors at the territorial level in order to think about solutions appropriate to the specificity of each region.”
The rise in the unemployment rate from 12.9 percent to 13.7 percent has multiple economic impacts on the Moroccan economy. Muhammad Amin Sami, an expert in strategic planning and economics, stated: Among them are “a reduction in purchasing power resulting from job losses and a decrease in the disposable income of families, which leads to a decrease in consumption and demand for goods and services.”
Among the repercussions, Sami added in an interview with Hespress, the increase in government spending on the social system as a result of the increased demand for government support and social services. Which increases the burden on the general budget, as well as its impact (unemployment) on economic growth after the decline in productivity and gross domestic product.
The same expert warned that the high unemployment rate could also negatively affect investment, as the decline in demand and economic uncertainty lead to a decline in private and foreign investments, concluding that “the government today is more required to provide a business climate and encourage, keep pace with and support enterprises in order to contribute to Absorption of unemployment.
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2024-05-06 11:02:07
