Rabat – The government of Morocco last Thursday launched an employment plan, announcing the allocation of 14 billion dirhams (1.4 billion dollars) during the current year to implement it.
The government spokesman, Mustafa Baitas, said at a conference that the governmental plan for employment (employment) aims to face the challenges in the labor market, amid climate changes that have become a major impact.
The plan focuses on encouraging small and medium companies to create job opportunities, restructure active programs for operation and encourage young farmers to launch local projects.
The Minister of Economic Integration, Lesser Contracting, Employment and Talents Younis Al -Skuri – during his presentation of the plan – said that the government conducted expanded consultations according to a participatory approach for a period of 6 months.
The consultations included the productive and social sectors, especially the General Union of Moroccan Contracting (Union of Labor Persons), and, according to Skori, concluded to determine programs according to 3 axes:
- Encouraging small and medium -sized companies to create job opportunities, while continuing to support major investments.
- Restructuring and expanding active programs for employment to include a category non -certificate holders, through a new government offer that concerns all categories of job seekers through the National Agency for the Reveal of Employment and Competencies.
- Providing a new government offer targeting villagers, especially young farmers and livestock breeders, through local income -managed projects that prove and create jobs.
The minister said that the government operating plan project includes other procedures aimed at:
- Reducing school leakage rates
- Restructuring training paths
- Fill in various government sectors and partners to download the employment plan
This plan comes months after the High Commissioner for Planning (government census) announced the results of the general statistics of the population, which showed an unprecedented increase in the unemployment rate, as it increased from 16.3 % in 2014 to 21.3 % in 2024.
The unemployment rate in cities for the same period increased from 19.3% to 21.2%, and in the villages (rural) from 10.5% to 21.4%, and this rate remains high in women (25.9% in 2024 compared to 29.6% in 2014) compared to men (20.1% in 2024 Against 12.4% in 2014).
The High Commission for Planning revealed this month that the agricultural sector, which is the first sector in terms of employment in Morocco, lost 137 thousand job opportunities by the end of the year 2024.
Late plan
The head of the Moroccan Center for Governance and Management, Youssef Karawi Al -Filali, believes that the government was very late in launching an employment plan for employment, and said that it was supposed to be launched immediately after the government’s inauguration and obtaining the confidence of Parliament.
He added in a comment to Al -Jazeera Net: “I do not think that setting a major plan for employment, and only one year before the legislative elections may limit the huge rise in unemployment rates at the national level.”
Al -Filali explained that two billion dirhams (about 200 million dollars) of the budget allocated by the government to this plan will go to direct support for operating projects, while 12 billion dirhams (1.2 billion dollars) are a governmental commitment within the investment charter.
Within the 2025 budget, the government allocated an amount of 12 billion dirhams (1.2 billion dollars) to continue implementing the new investment charter, which includes motivational measures for updated investment projects for continental business opportunities, especially in the value sectors.
Al -Filali said that the government plan for employment cannot be evaluated until 6 months after its application, and added that the plan can succeed relatively in the villages if local projects are launched that create job opportunities, but in return he sees that it will be ineffective and will not solve the problem of unemployment, even relatively If projects are launched and distributed without making sure that the beneficiaries are integrated or the support is granted to large farmers without making sure that they provide sustainable job opportunities.
Encouraging small companies
In its plan, the government committed to presenting a new offer to encourage small and medium -sized companies to create job opportunities and continue to support major investments.
The head of the Moroccan Confederation of Micro, Small and Medium Contracting, Abdullah Al -Fariki, believes that the government is betting in its plan for the heads of major companies only to provide job opportunities, while there are only 500 major companies in Morocco compared to millions of small, micro and medium -sized companies.
And very small (micro) companies are those that achieve the number of transactions less than 3 million dirhams (about 300 thousand dollars) and employ less than 10 people, while small companies range from 3 million and 50 million dirhams (between 300 thousand and 5 million dollars ), While the number of medium companies transactions ranges between 50 million and 75 million dirhams (between 5 million and 7.5 million dollars).
Small and medium -sized companies employ about 74% of the legal labor and contribute to the Moroccan economy by 38% of the added value.
Al -Farki said that the government is required to develop practical measures to help small, medium and micro companies based on overcoming the problems in which they are floundering, which led to the bankruptcy of about 40 thousand of them, and thus the loss of many job opportunities.
He pointed out that these companies have suffered since the Korona pandemic, which is followed by drought and then inflation, as well as the procedures currently undertaken by the Tax and Social Security Department by seizing the financial accounts of companies and their commercial records.
Al -Fariki called on the government to intervene to help the troubled companies overcome the difficulties in obtaining banking funds and public deals despite the existence of a law since 2013 that gives it the right to benefit from 20% of these deals, but it is not active, according to the same speaker.
In the eyes of Al -Farki, the success of the government’s plan to provide job opportunities by encouraging the establishment of new small and medium -sized companies, depending on the support of these companies to continue economic activity through administrative and legal procedures and facilities.
He believes that in the absence of this accompaniment and support, “its fate may be similar to its predecessors, and this will not have an impact on the labor market.”
