Egypt's unemployment rate rose to 6.4 per cent in the third quarter of 2025, 0.3 percentage points higher from the the previous quarter, the state statistics agency CAPMAS said on Sunday. The labour force grew 3.3 per cent quarter-on-quarter to 34.73 million, comprising 15.21 million people in urban areas and 19.52 million in rural areas. The increase was driven by a rise of 939,000 employed and 175,000 unemployed individuals, CAPMAS said. Unemployment totalled 2.23 million, including 1.07 million men and 1.16 million women. Male unemployment climbed to 4.0 per cent from 3.5 per cent in the second quarter, while female unemployment eased to 15.0 per cent from 15.8 per cent. Urban unemployment stood at 10.1 per cent, compared with 3.6 per cent in rural areas. CAPMAS said 83.1 per cent of jobseekers held intermediate, post-intermediate or university qualifications. Of the unemployed, 43.4 per cent had a university degree or higher and 39.7 per cent held intermediate or post-intermediate certificates, while 16.9 per cent had below-intermediate education. The labour force participation rate reached 46.9 per cent, with male participation at 71.4 per cent and female participation at 21.3 per cent. Participation was 46.1 per cent in urban areas and 47.5 per cent in rural areas. The number of employed reached 32.50 million, up 3 per cent from the previous quarter, including 13.67 million in urban areas and 18.83 million in rural areas. Paid employees accounted for 68.8 per cent of all employed at 22.36 million, while 1.64 million were employers, 6.22 million were self-employed without staff and 2.29 million were unpaid family workers. Agriculture and related activities remained the biggest employer with 6.65 million workers, followed by wholesale and retail trade and vehicle repair (5.23 million), manufacturing (4.30 million), construction (3.82 million) and transport and storage (2.64 million). Attribution: Amwal Al Ghad English Subediting: Y.Yasser
