The Banking Executive Magazine - January 2022 Issue

The Labor Market in Egypt quantity and quality. From a quanti- tative perspective, the education sys- tem is fast growing in the labor market with a huge workforce annu- ally that exceeds its ability to gener- ate new job opportunities. Young people (age 20-24) represent only 12% of the total employed compared to more than twice this percentage (25.5%) for the population group age 30-39. The main problem of the unemploy- ment lies in the entering stage to the labor market. Most of the unem- ployed (60%) belong to the newly unemployed category, especially fe- males (73% of the unemployed fe- males have never worked before compared to 44 % of males). As for the qualitative perspective, high unemployment rates among ed- ucated and its rise with rising educa- tion levels reflect the failure of edu- cation system to meet labor market required qualifications and skills. As seen in table 1, those with a univer- sity education and above represent the largest percentage of the un-em- ployed, at nearly 50%. However, rates are significantly lower among the illiterate and those below sec- ondary education level. Also, the share of university gradu- ates in employment are low, and ap- proaches that of the illiterate and those who can read and write. The number of those holding a technical certificates are double that share, and 8 times higher than those who are above intermediate and less than university education. This is the re- sult of the labor market's strong bias towards certain sectors, such as building and construction, which they employ these groups. Although data are not available by type of education, it has become a distinct phenomenon that only grad- uates of high quality university edu- cation are qualified to a decent sustainable jobs upon graduation. THE DEMOGRAPHIC STRUCTURE The proportion of the population in the working age has increased, which puts additional pressure on available job opportunities and eco- nomic activities. Also, Table 1 below shows the female participation in economic activity is very low com- pared to males, especially in the younger age groups, where male contributes in economic term by 3-4 times higher, while these differences increase in other age groups. GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION DISPARITIES OF UNEMPLOYMENT • Lower Egypt governorates are gen- erally having the highest unem- ployment rates compared to Upper Egypt governorates, such as Aswan, which has an unemploy- ment rate of 24%, Red Sea Gover- norate (23.5%) and North Sinai Governorate (48%); mainly due to the decline in tourism activity and the lower numbers of labor force in these governorates (Figure 1). • In general, unemployment rates among young people in the age group between 15 and 29 are dou- ble the general average for the groups aged between 15 and 64. • Finally, the geographical distribu- tion of unemployment rates reflects great disparities between urban and rural areas nationwide, where urban areas having the largest share of unemployment compared to rural areas in general, due to the concentration of industrial activi- ties in urban areas. the BANKING EXECUTIVE 40 ISSUE 157 JANUARY 2022 Participation rate in economic activities Age group 15-19 20-24 25-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 60-64 65 5.2 12.8 17 25.2 19.7 15.8 2.8 1.5 21.7 52.3 91.1 96.5 95.9 89.1 44.7 20.3 3.5 16.1 22.9 22.8 22.6 21.5 5.9 2.5 13 34.9 57.1 60.3 60.3 57.6 26.7 11.8 Labor force (%) Male Female Total