Casablanca- The alarming statistics revealed by the High Commission for Planning (HCP) last week on the rate of unemployment in Morocco have incited Moroccans’ pessimism about the future of employment in the kingdom.
Nearly 114,000 Moroccans have joined the camp of jobless citizens and around 10,000 jobs were lost, according to the HCP. A report recently revealed by the same institution has shown Moroccans’ impressions of this rise in unemployment rate.
The bulk of Moroccan families have pessimistic speculations for the future of employment in the country. More than 77 percent of Moroccan families now predict that the unemployment rate will rise further in the next 12 months, compared to 75 percent last quarter.
Based on HCP’s statistics, Moroccans have also expressed an increasing pessimism toward the development of living conditions in the kingdom. Compared to 2013, Moroccans are 6.4 percent less optimistic about the development of living standards in Morocco.
Moroccans’ negative view about the future is also clear in their predictions for the development of financial conditions. Only 57 percent of Moroccan families say that their incomes entirely cover their expenses, whereas more than 37 percent say that they mostly spend their incomes and eventually have to borrow money to cover their expenses. Only 5.8 percent of Moroccan families say they are able to save a portion of their incomes.
As for the purchasing of durable goods, the majority of Moroccans (54 percent) said that current financial conditions did not allow them to purchase durable goods, whereas 22.4 percent said they could.
Former governmental decisions to raise the prices of some vital goods possibly played a part in amplifying Moroccans’ pessimism about the development of living standards in the kingdom. More than 90 percent of Moroccan families said the price of vital products increased significantly.
Edited by Liz Yaslik