Morocco’s High Commission for Planning (HCP) has released a report on the labour market situation for the second quarter of 2026, based for the first time on data from the new Labour Force Survey (EMO2026), the next-generation statistical system that officially replaces the National Employment Survey (ENE), which had
been in use for decades.
According to the High Commission for Planning’s report, the strict unemployment rate in Morocco stood at 9.5% in the second quarter of 2026, 11.9% in urban areas, and 5.4% in rural areas.
“This rate reaches 14.8% for women, compared to 8.1% for men. Young people aged 15 to 24 remain the group most affected by this phenomenon, with a rate of 27.2%, followed by those aged 25 to 34 (14.5%),” states the HCP in its briefing note on the labour market situation in Q2 2026, published on Tuesday, August 4, 2026.
The strict unemployment rate stood at 16.7% among those with an advanced degree, followed by those with an intermediate degree (16%) and those with a basic degree (11.4%). Those with no degree had the lowest rate (3.8%).
Between the second and first quarters of 2026, the strict unemployment rate fell by 1.3 percentage points, from 10.8% to 9.5%; in urban areas, it fell from 13.5% to 11.9% (-1.6 percentage points); and in rural areas, it fell from 6.1% to 5.4% (-0.7 percentage points).
The strict unemployment rates for men and women fell by 1.3 percentage points over the same period, from 9.4% to 8.1% and from 16.1% to 14.8%, respectively.
Furthermore, this rate decreased across all age groups: by 2 percentage points among 15- to 24-year-olds, from 29.2% to 27.2%; by 1.6 percentage points among 25- to 34-year-olds, from 16.1% to 14.5%; and by 0.8 percentage points among 35- to 44-year-olds and those aged 45
The combined rate of strict unemployment and underemployment due to working hours, which measures the workforce experiencing insufficient working hours (total or partial), stood at 14% in the second quarter of 2026.
This rate was 15.9% in urban areas and 10.8% in rural areas. It was 17.6% for women compared to 13% for men.
The combined rate of strict unemployment and underemployment due to working hours decreased by 2.6 percentage points compared to the previous quarter, falling from 16.6% to 14%, from 18.3% to 15.9% in
urban areas (-2.4 percentage points) and from 13.6% to 10.8% in rural areas (-2.8 percentage points).
The HCP also reports that the combined rate of strict unemployment and the potential labour force, which
measures current and potential pressure on the labour market, stood at 14.7% in the second quarter of 2026, with 17.3% in urban areas and 10% in rural areas.
A significant gap exists between men and women; this rate stands at 24.2% for women compared to 11.9% for men.
Compared to the first quarter of 2026, the combined rate of strict unemployment and the potential labour force decreased by 2.4 percentage points, from 17.1% to 14.7%, from 20.4% to 17.3% in urban areas (-3.1 percentage points), and from 11.2% to 10% in rural areas (-1.1 percentage points).
This rate decreased by 3.7 percentage points among women, from 27.9% to 24.2%, and by 2 percentage points among men, from 13.9% to 11.9%.
In terms of absolute numbers, strict unemployment reached 1,121,000 people in the second quarter of 2026, of whom 79.3% resided in urban areas and 33.3% were women.
This represents a decrease of 132,000 unemployed compared to the first quarter of 2026, following a decline
of 108,000 in urban areas and 24,000 in rural areas.
Among those in employment for income, 527,000 are underemployed due to working hours, 56% of whom reside in urban areas. The potential workforce was estimated at 711,000 people, representing 4.4% of the non-labour population.
In conjunction with this report, the High Commission for Planning (HCP) is provisionally publishing back-polled indicators to reconstruct the historical series of key quarterly labour market indicators for the period from 2017 to 2025, using these new concepts.
The 2026 EMO (Economic Monitoring of the Labour Market) is the first Moroccan statistical system designed according to the most recent recommendations of the 19th, 20th, and 21st International Conferences of Labour Statisticians, organised by the International Labour Organization (ILO).
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