Egypt's unemployment rate rose to 9.6 per cent in the second quarter of 2020 from 7.7 per cent in the previous quarter of the year due to the coronavirus outbreak, the state-run statistics agency has said.
"The unemployment rate is up by 2.1 per cent compared with the same quarter in 2019," the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) said on Monday.
It attributed the rise in unemployment to the virus outbreak and the precautionary measures including the nighttime curfew, and suspension of international flights and tourism, reports Xinhua.
The labor force decreased by 8.0 per cent to 26.69 million in 2020, down from 29.01 million in the first quarter of the year.
Retail and wholesale sectors are the most impacted after losing 624,000 jobs in the second quarter of the year, the CAPMAS statement added.
Egypt started to ease the anti-coronavirus measures at the beginning of July by resuming international flights and tourism after more than three months of suspension to cope with the country's coexistence plans for improving the economy.
In May, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved 2.77 billion US dollars in emergency funding to Egypt to help it address the COVID-19 pandemic.
In June, the IMF approved a separate 5.2-billion-dollar standby loan agreement with Egypt.