Structure and Dimensions of the Egyptian Labor Force

The study aimed to analyze the trend in the demographic and socio-economic characteristics of the Egyptian labor force 1976-1996. Measures of employment, unemployment, and loss of active years due to unemployment revised by productivity and money were estimated. Projection of the supply and demand of Egyptian labor force till 2026 was included. The study indicated that, the changes in the population size have the greatest impact in increasing the labor force size. Low activity rates of female labor force were observed. Burden of unemployment increased over the study period. Unemployment rate among female was about three folds of that of male. At current levels of mortality and activity rates, an Egyptian labor in the first age group of working life (15-19) was expects to stay alive on average for additional 54 years, of these years, the average economically active life was estimated at 41 year; 39 years as average of employed life; and 2 years as average of unemployed life. At the current level of unemployment rate (9.3%), the current cohort of Egyptian labors lose about 10.6 million economically active years, represents about LE 149 Billion.