Egypt's unemployment slows in Q2/2014 to 13.3 pct

Egypt’s unemployment rate shrank slightly in the second quarter (Q2) of 2014 by 0.1 percent to register 13.3 percent, state-run statistics body CAPMAS announced Saturday.

According to CAPMAS, there are 3.7 million jobless Egyptian nationwide. The country's labour force totals 27.6 million people.

Almost 70 percent of unemployed people were aged between 15 and 29, holding diplomas or university degrees.

The CAPMAS quarterly report released Saturday said that the persistence of high unemployment reflects an ongoing slowdown in economic activity, especially in productive sectors such as industry, tourism and construction.

The World Bank said in a report earlier in August that the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region needs to grow at 6.5 per cent annually in order to provide 30 million jobs over seven years in the period between 2014 and 2020, so as to reduce high unemployment rates in the region.