Morocco’s economy created 282,000 jobs between the first quarters of 2024 and 2025, according to the latest report from the High Commission for Planning (HCP). This marks a significant turnaround after losing 80,000 positions during the same period the previous year.
The job growth was primarily urban, with 285,000 new positions in cities offsetting a slight decline of 3,000 jobs in rural areas. The services sector led job creation with 216,000 new positions (a 4% increase), followed by industry with 83,000 jobs (6% growth) and construction with 52,000 positions (4% increase). Only agriculture showed losses, shedding 72,000 jobs, a 3% decrease.
The national unemployment rate fell by 0.4 percentage points to 13.3%, with urban unemployment decreasing by a full percentage point to 16.6%. However, rural unemployment increased slightly by 0.5 points to 7.3%.
Labor force participation also showed positive movement, with the activity rate increasing by 0.3 percentage points to 42.9% nationally. The employment rate rose by 0.5 points to 37.2%, with urban areas seeing a 0.8-point increase to 34.6%, while rural areas experienced a slight 0.2-point decline to 42.3%.
The number of unemployed people decreased by 15,000, dropping from 1,645,000 to 1,630,000, a 1% reduction. This decrease came despite challenging conditions for young job seekers, as unemployment among those aged 15-24 increased by 1.8 points to 37.7%.
Other age groups saw improvements, with unemployment falling by 0.8 points among 25-34 year-olds, 0.5 points for those 35-44, and 0.6 points for workers 45 and older.
Unemployment among diploma holders decreased by 0.9 points to 19.4%, with particularly strong improvements for technical certificate holders (-3.9 points) and vocational qualification graduates (-3.6 points).
