Skills not needed: Egypt's labour market struggles to absorb university graduates

On a sunny morning in Cairo, Ali, a fresh university graduate, woke up dizzy due to lack of sleep from overthinking - not typical at his age.

He leaves home to attend a downtown job fair with little hope, but some determination inspired by a motivational speech by Steve Jobs he listened to on the internet yesterday.

In Egypt, 543,800 students graduate from university annually, entering a labour force of over 30 million, according to 2023 official statistics.

Young Egyptians (aged 18-29) account for a fifth of the national population and 39.2 per cent of the total labour force in 2022; a labour force unable to immediately provide appropriate jobs for all graduates.

The gap between skills and qualifications acquired in education and skills needed in the job market was highlighted by President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi himself in September.

El-Sisi stressed that the job market does not need a large number of students graduating from faculties such as law, commerce, and humanities each year.

"The job opportunities for many graduates in certain majors are non-existent or limited, while the job market inside and outside Egypt needs hundreds of thousands of people in the field of digitization," he said.

Agreeing with the president, Mo'men El-Attar, Business Development Manager at Tawzef for Recruitment and HR Consultancy, said that the top jobs in the market are in the digital and tech sectors.