Egypt’s Unemployment Rate Declines

April 28, 2025

(3 Minutes Read)

Egypt’s total labour force was estimated at 32.041 million individuals in 2024, comprising 26.080 million males and 5.961 million females. This represents a 2.9 per cent increase compared to 2023, when the labour force totalled 31.149 million. Geographically, 14.078 million individuals were part of the urban labour force, while 17.963 million resided in rural areas.

Egypt’s unemployment rate declined to 6.6 per cent in 2024, down from 7.0 per cent in 2023, reflecting a 0.4 percentage point improvement, according to the latest data from the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS).

Youth unemployment, covering individuals aged 15–29, also saw a positive shift, falling to 14.9 per cent of the total labour force within this age group — a decrease of 1.0 percentage point compared to the previous year. Within this category, unemployment rates stood at 9.8 per cent for males and 37.1 per cent for females.

A closer look by age group shows that unemployment among those aged 15–19 years was 12.2 per cent in 2024, slightly lower than the 12.4 per cent recorded in 2023.

Among highly educated youth — those with intermediate, above-intermediate, university, or postgraduate degrees — the unemployment rate fell to 18.7 per cent, compared to 20.3 per cent the year before. Specifically, unemployment among educated males dropped to 12.2 per cent from 13.3 per cent in 2023.