The Moroccan economy has created 230,000 job positions between 2020 and 2021, compared to a loss of 432,000 positions a year earlier, a creation of 165,000 in 2019 and an average annual creation of 121,000 during the three pre-pandemic years, according to the High Commission for Planning (HCP).
"The national economy has created 230,000 jobs in 2021, which corresponds to an increase of 2%, 100,000 jobs in urban areas (+2%) and 130,000 in rural zones (+3%)," said the HCP, which has published an information note on the situation of the labor market in 2021.
By type of employment, 197,000 paid jobs were created, 112,000 in urban areas and 85,000 in rural areas, the same source said, adding that unpaid employment has grown by 33,000 positions, i.e. a creation of 45,000 in rural areas and a loss of 12,000 in urban areas.
The said note also pointed out that the activity rate has increased by 0.5 point to 45.3%. With this rise, the activity rate has reached a level close to that recorded before the pandemic (45.8% in 2019).
This increase is more pronounced in rural areas (+0.9 points), from 50% to 50.9%, than in urban areas (+0.4 points), from 41.9% to 42.3%.
The rise in the activity rate is due to a 1.4% increase in the population of working age (15 years and over), compared with 2020, and a 3% increase in the active population. The activity rate of women has increased by 1 point to 20.9% against 70.4% for men.
In addition, the HCP reported that the employment rate has increased from 39.4% to 39.7% at the national level (35.1% in urban and 48.4% in rural zones). This rate has decreased among men (-0.2 points) and increased among women (+0.7 points). However, the employment rate remains below the level recorded before the pandemic (41.6% in 2019).
As for the total number of hours worked per week, it increased from 394 million hours in 2020 to 470 million hours in 2021, which corresponds to a 19% increase in working hours.
The volume of hours worked per week has increased in urban areas from 237 million to 287 million hours (+21%) and in rural areas from 158 million to 183 million hours (+16%).
