How megaprojects mitigated COVID-19 impact on Egypt’s labor market
The coronavirus pandemic has increased the unemployment rate, but the impact could have been worse without the infrastructure overhaul.
The repercussions of the coronavirus pandemic has escalated Egypt’s unemployment rate to a two-year high, standing at 9.6% of the total workforce in the second quarter of 2020, up from 7.7% in the first quarter, the state-run Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) said in a statement Aug. 17.
CAPMAS ascribed the increase to the anti-coronavirus measures taken by the authorities such as the shutdown of schools, the suspension of flights, partial closing of shops and the night curfew.
The labor force fell by 8% to 26.68 million in the second quarter, down from 29 million in the first quarter, according to CAPMAS.
“Thanks to the national megaprojects under construction, the employment rate did not increase more than 9.6%. The numerous infrastructure projects nationwide have cushioned the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Egypt’s economy, especially growth and employment,” Abdel Mottaleb Abdel Hamid, professor of economics at the Cairo-based Sadat Academy for Management Sciences, told Al-Monitor.
