Youth unemployment tops Morocco priorities

By Siham Ali for Magharebia in Rabat

[Siham Ali] Outgoing Employment Minister Jamal Rhmani says high unemployment “could have a negative impact on stability and public order”.

Unemployed young Moroccan graduates hope that once new Prime Minister Abdelilah Benkirane assembles his government within the next few days, their situation may finally begin to improve.

In its electoral platform, the Justice and Development Party (PJD) vowed to reduce unemployment by 2% and to give 100,000 grants to unemployed young people to support them through training courses. The PJD has proposed to introduce jobseekers’ allowance and to raise the minimum wage to 3,000 dirhams.

PJD Secretary-General Abdelilah Benkirane, set to be sworn-in as the new prime minister, has said that efforts must be made to reduce unemployment. Above all, he argued, corruption and authoritarianism must be tackled in order to have a real impact on the economy and jobs.

The labour market is flooded with graduates because of the 1980s baby boom, according to Najib Boulif, an economist and senior PJD official. Significant efforts must be made to boost regional development, he told Magharebia.

“That will help to achieve a balance between the regions and prevent vacancies from being clustered in Rabat and Casablanca, as is the case at present,” he said.

Outgoing Employment Minister Jamal Rhmani believes that joblessness among young graduates requires specialisation, with new professions emerging to meet sector-wide plans in the pipeline.

During a seminar held in Rabat on December 5th, Rhmani said that the situation has spurred authorities to step up their efforts to create a workforce with the necessary skills and address labour needs by implementing the concept of “fair work”.

An agreement on two measures was signed by the government and the General Confederation of Moroccan Businesses (CGEM) last May with a view to consolidating and improving job promotion plans, as well as assisting direct integration into businesses.

The employment ministry said that the first measure is intended to improve the on-going Idmaj plan, which enables young graduates to develop their professional skills by gaining work experience while helping businesses increase their competitiveness. The project involves the state paying 12 months of social welfare contributions if a permanent contract is signed during or at the end of the 24-month training period.

The second measure is aimed at creating a “Professional Integration Contract” (PIC) to assist jobseekers having difficulty securing their first job. The programme allows businesses to address their needs while training university graduates for six to nine months. The government then makes a financial contribution to companies that offer a permanent employment contract.

According to initial forecasts, these two new initiatives will create 297,000 posts for jobseekers between Q4 2011 and 2016, at a cost to the government of more than 2 billion dirhams.

But despite government efforts to tackle unemployment, the rate remains high.

According to the CGEM, businesses need skilled employees to boost productivity and competitiveness. This has been underlined repeatedly by Jamal Belahrach, the chairman of the CGEM Employment and Business Relations Committee. He has called for measures to be put in place to help young people find jobs with companies.”This could have a negative impact on stability and public order,” Rhanmi said. “We need to think of alternative ways of getting young people into work,” the minister said, adding that a new vision was being developed based on the outcome of talks between trade unions and employers, as well recommendations from the CGEM.

Jobs are linked to wealth creation and educational reform, according to Chakib Benmoussa, the president of the Economic and Social Council. He said growth over the past decade hasn’t reduced youth unemployment significantly.

According to a report issued by the council, jobs held by young people tend to be insecure as they are often “underpaid, non-contracted and seldom covered by a social welfare scheme”.