Morocco’s labor market showed clear signs of improvement in the second quarter of 2026, with paid employment climbing and strict unemployment falling, according to a newly expanded Labor Force Survey from the High Commission for Planning, which grew its annual sample from 90,000 to 135,000 households while adopting updated International Labor Organization standards.
The number of people in paid employment reached 10.643 million between April and June, an increase of 279,000 positions, or 2.7 percent, compared with the first quarter.
Urban areas accounted for the bulk of the gain with 187,000 new jobs, against 92,000 in rural areas, pushing the national paid employment rate up to 38.2 percent from 37.3 percent the previous quarter.
Services remained the labor market’s main engine, employing 5.251 million people and accounting for 49.3 percent of paid employment after adding 166,000 jobs in a single quarter, while industry added 47,000 positions, construction and public works 42,000, and agriculture, forestry and fishing 28,000.
The number of strictly unemployed people fell by 132,000 to 1.121 million, pulling the strict unemployment rate down from 10.8 percent to 9.5 percent, with declines recorded in both urban areas, where the rate fell to 11.9 percent from 13.5 percent, and rural areas, where it dropped to 5.4 percent from 6.1 percent.
Significant gaps persist beneath the headline improvement: unemployment stood at 14.8 percent among women compared with 8.1 percent among men, and at 27.2 percent among 15-to-24-year-olds despite a two-point quarterly decline, while holders of advanced degrees faced unemployment of 16.7 percent, far above the 3.8 percent rate among those with no diploma at all.
