Egypt’s unemployment falls but gender disparity remains

• Unemployment at 6.2% in Q4
• Women made up 8m of 35m workforce
• Nearly 20m work in rural areas

Egypt’s unemployment fell to a record low in 2025 after it introduced reforms to drive economic growth and tame inflation.

The unemployment rate fell to 6.2 percent of the labour force in the fourth quarter, from 6.4 percent in Q3, according to the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (Capmas).

The average unemployment rate for 2025 was 6.25 percent, which the agency described as the “lowest in Egypt’s modern history”.

Egypt economic data

However, unemployment in Q4 2025 was 1 percent higher than the figure for the final quarter of 2024.

The labour force increased by 0.3 percent quarter on quarter to 34.8 million, compared with 34.7 million in Q3. It was made up of 26.9 million men and 7.9 million women. 

Urban areas accounted for 15.2 million of the total and rural areas for 19.6 million.

Agriculture, forestry, logging and fishing remained the largest employers, with 6.6 million workers, or 20 percent of total employment.

Wholesale and retail trade, along with vehicle repair, employed 5.5 million, followed by manufacturing, which employed 4.7 million.

Construction accounted for 3.5 million workers, while transport and storage employed 2.7 million, Capmas said.

Last week President Abdel Fattah El Sisi announced a cabinet reshuffle,  appointing new ministers to oversee the housing, higher education, planning, investment and foreign trade portfolios. 

Ahmed Rostom, a senior economist at the World Bank, was named minister of planning, while Mohamed Farid Saleh, chairperson of the Financial Regulatory Authority, will lead the investment ministry.

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In December the International Monetary Fund reached a staff-level agreement with Egypt on the fifth and sixth reviews under its extended fund facility arrangement, potentially unlocking $2.5 billion.

Cairo agreed to the expanded $8 billion, 46-month loan in March 2024, when it was facing high inflation and forex shortages.

Inflation fell to 24 percent in December 2025 compared with 38 percent in September 2023.