As farmers are plagued by drought, Morocco’s unemployment rate increases to 13.3% in 2024

Morocco’s statistics office, HCP, said on Monday that the country’s unemployment rate increased from 13% in 2024 to 13.3% in 2024 as the farming industry continues to lose jobs as a result of the drought.

With the agriculture industry losing 137,000 employment after the seventh consecutive dry year, there were 1.63 million unemployed individuals in Morocco, a country of 37 million people, as of the end of 2024, according to a research by HCP.

The opposition has criticized the administration for not delivering on its pledges to create jobs.

Last month, the government attributed the increase in unemployment on the drought and pledged to invest $1.4 billion to increase job creation this year, especially by supporting youth employment and small and medium-sized businesses.

According to the HCP, services generated the greatest number of employment, followed by industry and construction.

Young people’s unemployment rate increased to 36.7% from 35.8% the previous year. It was 19.6% among graduates and 19.4% among women, down from 19.7% and 18.3%, respectively, the previous year.