Beyond the headline drop in unemployment to 9.5 percent, the first results of Morocco’s newly redesigned labor force survey point to a broader improvement across the job market, one that a revamped methodology now allows to be read through several complementary indicators rather than a single unemployment figure, according to an analysis published by Aujourd’hui Le Maroc.
The High Commission for Planning overhauled its quarterly employment survey in May, aiming for a more granular reading of the data closer to reality rather than the sometimes reductive lens of the unemployment rate alone. This week’s second-quarter 2026 results, the analysis argues, validate that methodological shift while also delivering genuinely encouraging signals.
Unemployment fell more than a full point from the previous quarter, to 9.5 percent, while the economy added 279,000 paid jobs in just three months. Crucially, other indicators moved in the same direction: the composite labor underutilization rate declined, underemployment eased, and paid employment rose strongly across multiple sectors including services, industry and construction, suggesting the improvement does not rest on a single economic engine.
The piece stresses that disparities persist beneath the aggregate gains: youth continue to post the highest unemployment levels, women remain far less present in the labor market than men, and university graduates still face greater difficulty finding work than the national average, realities the new methodology does not erase but helps situate within a fuller picture.
The High Commission has also recalculated its main indicators back to 2017 under the new methodology, the analysis notes, allowing for consistent historical comparison going forward. That, combined with closer alignment to International Labor Organization standards, is expected to sharpen both domestic policy evaluation and international comparisons of Morocco’s labor market over coming quarters.
