Egypt's unemployment rate rose to 9.2 percent through the end of March to the end of April due to the government's preventive measures to contain the coronavirus spread, according to the state statistics agency CAPMAS. During the first quarter, the country's unemployment rate stood at 7.7 percent, down from 8 percent during the same period last year, the CAPMAS added. It added that the labour force increased by 0.2 percent to reach 29.008 million individuals, up from 28.95 million in the first quarter, while the unemployed recorded 2.236 million people, down by 31,000 in the same quarter of 2019. The rate of the unemployed aged between 15 and 29 fell to 68.5 percent in the first quarter from 69.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2019, CAPMAS said. It also announced that the number of employed persons slightly rose to 26.772 million in the first quarter from 26.621 million in the fourth quarter of 2019. In April, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicted in its global and regional outlooks that Egypt's unemployment rate would reach 10.3 percent in 2020, and 11.6 percent in 2021 amid the coronavirus crisis, compared with 8.8 percent in 2019. According to Trading Economics (TE), Egypt's unemployment rate is expected to register 10 percent by the end of the current quarter, estimating it to stand at 7.2 percent within a 12 month-time. In the long-term, TE expected the rate to trend around 8 percent in 2021 and 7.6 percent in 2022.
