The monthly report of Cabinet's Information and Decision-Making Support Center monitored a decline in the demand for Egyptian labor locally and abroad last September. The index went down to 362 points from 683 points recorded in August, while in September of last year it recorded 885 points. The report said that the private sector employment rate went up 10% in September, reaching 3,062 employees, compared to 3029 in the previous month. Employment opportunities provided by the Social Fund went up by 19% and the Local Development Fund by 5.2%, reaching 386 opportunities in September, compared to 367 in the previous month. The report determines the indexes through jobs advertised in the newspapers and through data obtained from the Minister of Manpower and the Social and Local Development Funds. Dr. Hamdi Abdel Azim, economist and former president of the Sadat Academy for Administrative Sciences, attributed the retreat in demand for Egyptian labor to the decline in the economic growth rate to 5.2%, compared to 7% last year. He also attributed it to the decline in income sources, exports and construction as of last September.
Azim also said that the global financial crisis caused a major recession in the Gulf States, the first refuge for Egyptian labor, contending that there is a decline in demand for all labor and not just Egyptian labor, and expecting more unemployment.
