Egypt’s unemployment rate registered a slight increase in the third quarter of 2025, reaching 6.4 percent, up from 6.1 percent recorded between April and June.
According to data published Sunday by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS), the rise is primarily linked to a significant increase in the total labor force.
Compared to the same period last year, however, the employment situation has improved, with the unemployment rate sitting at 6.7 percent in Q3 2024.
CAPMAS attributes the quarterly increase to a 3.3 percent rise in the labor force, which reached 34.7 million individuals in Q3 2025, up from 33.6 million in the previous quarter.
While the number of employed individuals also increased by 3 percent (to approximately 32.5 million from 31.6 million), the growth in the labor pool outpaced job creation, resulting in 175,000 new individuals joining the unemployment rolls during the third quarter.
The unemployment trends showed noticeable variation across gender and location: Men: The rate of unemployment among men rose to 4 percent in Q3 2025, up from 3.5 percent in the previous quarter. Women: The rate for women saw a slight decrease, settling at 15 percent of the total female labor force, down from 15.8 percent in Q2 2025 and a significant improvement from 18.2 percent recorded a year ago.
Urban Areas: Unemployment in urban centers reached 10.1 percent of the total urban labor force, marking an increase from 9.7 percent in the second quarter. Rural Areas: Rural unemployment remained lower, reaching 3.6 percent of the total rural labor force, a modest rise from 3.3 percent in the previous quarter.
Despite the quarterly uptick, the data confirms the country’s labor market continues to expand, absorbing millions of new workers while simultaneously highlighting the ongoing challenge of meeting job demand in key urban centers.
AK/ac/Sf/fss/abj/APA