Egypt’s Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) on Friday reported that the unemployment rate fell to 8.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2018, down by 1.1 percent compared to the third quarter’s rate of 10 percent and down by 2.4 percent from the same quarter of 2017. In a report on unemployment, the agency pointed to a decline in the unemployment rate among males to 6.4 percent of the total labor force. The unemployment rate among females fell to 19.6 percent during the same period. The rate of contribution to economic activity is 42.2 percent of the total population. The number of persons employed in this activity reached 5.469 million employed persons, 21.4 of the total employed, followed by wholesale and retail trade with 3.392 million employed persons (13.3 percent), followed by construction and building activity with 3.275 million workers (12.8 percent).

Source: Egypt Independent February 15, 2019 09:11 UTC