Egypt unemployment rate rises to 11.9% after protests

Egypt's unemployment rate has risen to 11.9 percent in the first quarter under the impact of the political unrest, head of the Central Agency for Public Mobilization And Statistics (CAPMAS) Abu Bakr el-Gindi said Wednesday.

Egypt's unemployment rate in the last quarter of 2010 was 8.9 percent, he told a press conference, describing the sharp increase as "a very big jump."

Out of the total workforce that exceeds 26 million people, 3.1 million are jobless, el-Gindi said, blaming the rise on the negative consequences that followed the protests and led to slowdown in economic activities.

Unemployment in Egypt, the most populous Arab country with a population over 80 million, was among the top complaints of protesters who joined the anti-government demonstration.

Egypt is faced with a deteriorating economy caused by the political turmoil after the protests that toppled former President Hosni Mubarak.

El-Gindi said that Egypt's tourist revenue, one of the country' s economic pillar, dropped by 60 percent after the protests. Hotel occupancy rates decreased in the first four months of this year by 16 percent compared with the same time in 2010.

"Tension, destabilization and sectarian sedition lead to the drop in tourist reservation by 20 percent this month," he said.

Egypt has lost around two billion U.S. dollars in tourism revenues due to the political unrest, according to official estimates earlier this month.

El-Gendi said revenues from exports and the Suez Canal were not affected as the tourism sector.

Posted in: Egypt unemployment rate rises to 11.9% after protests