Morocco needs more industrial jobs to bolster labor added value

Morocco needs to create conditions propitious for the emergence of medium sized industries that are well-integrated in the domestic market in order to bolster the value added of the job market and absorb job seekers leaving the primary sector, head of Morocco’s planning agency HCP said.

Speaking at the presentation of a recent study on job market and low added value, HCP chief Ahmed Lahlimi said climate volatility causes job losses in the farming sector, propelling a labor migration to low-added value service jobs such as retail and handicrafts, while increasing the size of the informal sector.

Informal labor accounted for 67% of Morocco’s job market which is characterized by a low women participation at 29.7%.

Nearly most or 97% of all jobs in the farming sector were informal. It accounted overall for half informal jobs in the country due in part to the seasonal character of labor.

Industry accounted for 11% of all jobs in the country with HCP chief Lahlimi urging more action to develop a locally integrated industrial fabric given its high impact of added value.

Unemployment rose slightly to 12.9% in total hitting mostly women, the youth and the graduates.