Egypt Labour Demand Falls 20 pct in May

Demand for Egyptian workers fell by around 20 per cent in the year to May, data from the Egyptian Cabinet’s Information and Decision Support Centre (IDSC) showed on Monday. The centre's Labour Demand index shows that domestic demand for Egyptian employees fell by 42 per cent year-on-year, while requests by other countries dropped 19.2 per cent. Demand for higher-educated labour slumped from 345 points in May 2011 to 291 points in May 2012.

There was slightly more cheering news on a monthly basis, with the index rising a mild 7 per cent between April and May. The index, which uses 2002 data as its base year, traces demand for Egyptian labour based on vacancies announced in national newspapers. In May, Egypt's state-run statistics body showed the country's official jobless rate was continuing to rise, hitting 12.6 per cent in the first quarter of 2012.

Figures from the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) showed 3.4 million unemployed people in Egypt at the end of March 2012 -- a rise of 62,000 on the fourth quarter of the previous year. In April, the Arab Labour Organisation predicted that unemployment in the Arab world will reach at least 16 per cent in the wake of last year's uprisings.