The Employability Bet, Nearly Won

In a context marked by successive crises and economic shocks, this comes close to a miracle. The national economy has created approximately 850,000 net jobs.

In other words, the government has managed to create an average of nearly 170,000 jobs per year. Even more striking, by way of comparison, this is twice the pace of job creation recorded under previous governments.

The figures bear this out: job creation barely exceeded 64,000 positions per year over the 2011–2016 period, and 90,000 jobs annually between 2016 and 2021. The year 2025 alone was marked by the creation of 233,000 non‑agricultural jobs.

According to the Head of Government, “the total number of jobs created in non‑agricultural sectors is expected to exceed one million by the end of 2026, thereby making it possible to overcome the challenges posed by successive years of drought and their direct impact on employment opportunities in the agricultural sector.”

Looking more closely—this time based on statistics published at the beginning of the year by the HCP—the services and construction and public works (BTP) sectors generated around 100,000 jobs each, while industry created approximately 30,000 jobs.

Two key points emerge from this distribution. First, there has been a gradual disappearance of unpaid jobs, which partly explains the persistence of a relatively high unemployment rate despite the large number of jobs created.

More importantly, this trend—the decline of unpaid work in favour of paid and stable employment—has become firmly established in recent years.

The second observation, which may seem obvious at first glance, is that while successive years of drought have indeed had a notable impact on employment, the rise of the tourism sector and the increase in investments in industry, particularly foreign investment, have largely offset this trend.

This development is confirmed by HCP statistics. The share of unpaid work fell from 14.2% in 2020 to less than 9.3% in 2025.

Over the same period, wage employment increased from 50.1% of total employment to more than 61%. The number of salaried workers declared to the National Social Security Fund (CNSS) rose from around 283,000 in 2020 to approximately 470,000 in 2024, representing an increase of 66%.

This shift establishes the transition towards decent work as a qualitative transformation in the structure of the labour market. The return of rainfall heralds a clear improvement in employment in the agricultural sector, and therefore in rural areas.

However, Morocco should not rely solely on rainfall to reduce the unemployment rate, which, incidentally, declined by five-tenths of a percentage point, falling from 13.6% to 13.1% in one year.

Without entering into polemics over figures, the “observed” unemployment rate—using a term employed by the supervising minister—would have fallen to 12.8% by the end of the second quarter of the same year.

All indications suggest that this decline will continue and even accelerate. The performance of the three main employment‑generating sectors confirms this.

Major infrastructure projects that have been launched will continue to absorb labour. The prospect of an excellent agricultural season—given the significant improvement in dam water levels across all river basins, as well as ongoing reforms and the future evolution of the agricultural sector—constitutes a strong signal of recovery in the labour market.

Investment, the engine of employment

Furthermore, since its establishment following the adoption of the new Investment Charter in March 2023, the National Investment Commission has approved, by the end of its ninth session, a total of 297 projects, expected to contribute to the creation of approximately 201,000 direct and indirect jobs.

For their part, the Regional Investment Centres (CRIs) had received, by the end of February 2026, a total of 209 projects, while the unified regional investment commissions approved 33 projects, which should enable the creation of around 940,000 direct jobs.

Some of these projects are already operational, while others are underway. In addition, the Minister of Employment stated that he aims to create nearly 350,000 jobs for young people in 2026, through a range of programmes and incentives.

It should be recalled that the government had committed—this being one of the flagship promises of the RNI’s electoral programme—to creating one million post‑Covid jobs in order to revive the national economy.

All indications suggest that this target will not only be met, but exceeded, despite successive years of drought, the Al‑Haouz earthquake, and an unfavourable international economic environment.

It is also worth noting that the green hydrogen ecosystem, whose first units are expected to become operational before the end of the year, is projected to generate no fewer than 300,000 direct jobs by 2030. This is without mentioning the ongoing expansion of the automotive ecosystem, including battery manufacturing, as well as the aerospace industry.

All of this forms part of a broader government programme launched at the beginning of last year, with a budget of 14 billion dirhams,

aimed “at addressing emerging challenges in the labour market”, challenges that are linked, among other factors, to “climate change, now structural in nature, as well as the repercussions of the economic and social transformations triggered by the Covid‑19 crisis and the geostrategic crises that have shaken the world.”

This plan adopted by the Executive is built on several pillars, including support for investment through a new government offering designed to encourage SMEs and very small enterprises (VSEs); the restructuring and expansion of active employment programmes to include non‑graduates; and a new offer targeting rural populations, particularly small farmers and livestock breeders.

At the same time, the government has made significant efforts to regularise and sustain jobs in the productive sector, combating informal employment. As a result, over the 2023–2024 period, the monthly average number of salaried employees declared to the CNSS increased by 122,000.

A declining unemployment rate, recovering segments of the economy, new industrial ecosystems being launched, others in the pipeline—such as the rail and shipbuilding industries and maritime transport—established sectors undergoing profound transformation like offshoring, and above all a new training policy better aligned with the deep changes underway in the labour market: all these factors are setting the Kingdom on the path towards full employment, or at the very least a marked improvement in employability, particularly for young people.