Morocco’s unemployment rate drops to 9.8%

Morocco’s unemployment rate dropped to 9.8 per cent in 2018 from 10.2 per cent in 2017 with services topping job creating sectors, the planning agency said.
The agency said in Rabat that the economy created 112,000 jobs last year, including 21,000 in rural areas, up from 86,000 jobs in 2017.
It said that Services sector created 65,000 jobs, while construction and manufacturing offered 15,000 and 13,000 jobs, respectively.
“Agriculture and fisheries created 19,000 jobs as Morocco experienced a good harvest for the second consecutive year after abundant rainfall,” it said in a statement.
There were 1,168,000 unemployed people in 2018, 48,000 less than in 2017.
Informal labour abounds in Morocco, making it hard to produce reliable employment figures.
The planning agency expects Morocco’s economic growth to slow to 2.9 per cent in 2019 from 3 per cent in 2018.
The government expects the economy to grow 3.2 per cent this year.