Patterns of Labor Market Insertion in Egypt, 1998-2012

The Egyptian labor is characterized by high levels of youth unemployment and by substantial informalization of the first job. The paper explores the insertion trajectories into the labor market of young Egyptians and investigates whether these trajectories have changed over time, specifically over the period 1998-2012. It uses the labor market history modules of comparable and nationally representative data sets, specifically the Egyptian Labor Market Survey (ELMS) of 1998, and the Egyptian Labor Market Panel Surveys (ELMPS) of 2006 and 2012. The analysis shows five main results. First, the Egyptian labor market is not dynamic. Very few young people change their labor market status over a 6-year period after their entry into the labor market. Second, after finishing school men tend to find a job more rapidly in the beginning of the 2010s as compared to the end of the 1990s or mid-2000s. Third, the Egyptian labor market is clearly segmented along formal and informal types of employment. Fourth, female withdrawal from the labor market is strongly affected by the type of job women obtain. Women who obtain a formal job when entering the labor market will stay longer in the labor market as compared to women who obtain another type of employment. Finally, both men and women who finished school in the early 2000s experience lower persistence rates in unemployment.