CAIRO – 16 May 2022: The Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) announced Sunday that the number of employed citizens recorded in the first quarter of 2022, 27,750,000 up from 27,453,000 in the fourth quarter of 2021 with an increase of 1.1 percent.

The breakdown is 11,784,000 in urban areas, and 15,966,000 in rural ones. The agency clarified that urban unemployment dropped from 11 percent in the fourth quarter of 2021 to 10.5 percent in the first quarter of 2022. The agency noted that the figure in the same quarter of 2021 was 11.1 percent.

As for rural unemployment, it had been 4.4 percent before it slightly rose to 4.5 percent in the last quarter of 2021 and the first one in 2022.   

Employed citizens compose 42.8 percent of the population aged above 15, down from 43.8 percent in the last three months of 2021 but up from 42.2 percent in the first three months of the same year.

The percentages among males and females are 69.3 percent and 15.2 percent, respectively. The figure rose significantly among males as it was 67.8 percent in the same quarter in 2021, but by the end of the year, it amounted to 69.8 percent.

On the contrary, the figure declined among women from 15.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2021, which was an improvement compared to 15.1 percent in the first quarter of the same year.  

The percentages of the employed in urban areas and rural areas are quite close, as they are respectively, 42.7 percent and 42.8 percent. Both rose a bit from 42.7 percent and 31.8 percent in the first quarter of 2021, but declined from 43.1 percent and 44.4 percent in the last quarter of the same year.  

The largest age group among the employed ranges between 40 and 49, as those compose 58.2 percent. As for the sectors that attracted more workers compared to the last three months of 2021, they are constructions (165,000 new workers), agriculture and forestry (81,000 more workers), and transformative industries (65,000 more workers).