Al-Othmani: Employment is key to fighting social unrest

MEMO (Middle East Monitor)

August 29, 2017

Moroccan Prime Minister Saad Eddine al-Othmani said that “employment and the creation of new jobs helps fighting back social unrest in the country.”

Othmani was speaking on Monday during the first meeting of the Ministerial Committee for Employment in the capital Rabat.

Al-Othmani stressed that unemployment is a serious problem i and that “the government will create enough jobs to fight back vulnerability and marginalisation.”

Al-Othmani’s statement coincides with the tension that additional cities and villages in the countryside have been witnessing, as they called for “development, demarginalisation and fighting corruption.”

He added that “the government aims at both finding remedies to the problem of unemployment, and increasing the ability to create employment opportunities for young people and citizens.”

The Moroccan Prime Minister admitted that “the results of the country’s efforts to reduce the unemployment rate over the past decade are still limited, despite the existence of a number of important programs.”

The Moroccan High Commission for Planning (HCP) stated that unemployment rates rose in the second quarter of this year to reach around 9.3 percent on an annual basis compared to around 9.1 percent in the corresponding period of 2016.