Egypt Labor Market Panel Survey 2023

In recent years, Egypt’s labor market has faced substantial challenges amid a dynamic socio-economic landscape. The availability of robust data is crucial for understanding these challenges and formulating effective policies. The Egypt Labor Market Panel Survey (ELMPS) has emerged as a cornerstone of labor market research and human development in Egypt, providing essential insights into the socio-economic conditions of its population.

Over the past 25 years, the ELMPS has established itself as a vital resource, complementing similar surveys in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The region faces a shortage of economic research, making the availability of rich and detailed panel data documenting the socio-economic and labor market characteristics of individuals living in Egypt a valuable public good.

Since its inception in 1998, the ELMPS has documented labor market activities through nationally representative panel data collected in 1998, 2006, 2012, and 2018. The survey began with approximately 5,000 households and has expanded to include 15,746 households by 2018, including both panel and refresher households. This longitudinal dataset has become the backbone of research on critical topics such as labor markets, human development, migration, family dynamics, and social protection in Egypt.

In 2023, the Economic Research Forum (ERF) collaborated with the Ministry of Planning, Economic Development, and International Cooperation, along with the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics, to conduct the fifth round of the ELMPS. This new wave was supported by esteemed organizations, including the International Labour Organization, Agence Française de Développement, World Bank, UNICEF, and UN Women.

The ELMPS 2023 captured 70,636 individuals and 17,784 households. Of these, 50,268 individuals and 13,565 households were tracked from 2018 to 2023.

Drawing on the recent wave of the ELMPS, the Economic Research Forum is producing new research that will eventually be turned into a new book for the Labor Market Panel Survey series. In this regard, the ERF research team has undertaken comprehensive analyses of the latest ELMPS data, producing descriptive papers that explore a wide array of critical topics, including but not limited to employment and labor supply, trends in income and wage inequality, social protection mechanisms, migration patterns, the green economy, and occupational segregation. Additionally, the research addresses the gender wage gap from 1998 to 2023 and examines female care work and other timely issues, utilizing the newly integrated time-use module.

We acknowledge the financial support of the International Labour Organization through the Government of the Netherlands and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, the World Bank Poverty and Equity Global Practice supported by the UK-funded Strategic Partnership for Egypt’s Inclusive Growth trust fund (SPEIG TF), and World Bank MENA Chief Economist office, Agence Française de Développement (AFD), Ministry of Planning, Economic Development and International Cooperation, Egypt, UNICEF and UN Women for the Egypt Labor Market Panel Survey 2023.