Policy Briefs
Employment Conditions in Egypt Are Improving, But Only for Some: Findings from The 2023 Wave of The Egypt Labor Market Panel Survey
No.
PB 136
Publisher
ERF
Date
November, 2024
In a nutshell:
- There are signs of improving employment outcomes from 2018 to 2023, including slightly faster employment growth, increased formality of employment in the private sector, reduced employment precarity and irregularity, reduced time-related underemployment, and better access to employer-provided health insurance.
- These improvements have not been equally shared across workers, with women, in particular, experiencing deteriorating employment conditions in terms of both the quantity and quality of employment.
- Less educated and poorer men have also not shared in many of the improvements
- Employment in the public sector has continued to decline, leading to an overall increase in informality. This has affected women, who are more dependent on such employment, more adversely than men.
- While private wage employment has stagnated, own account work has grown rapidly, especially in sectors such as education, utilities, and transport
- There is evidence of the emergence of the missing middle of the economy, with employment in small and medium establishments growing much faster that employment outside of establishments and in micro and large establishments
Research Fellows
Ragui Assaad
Professor and Freeman Chair for International Economic...
Authors
Esraa Mahmoud
Ph.D. Student, Humphrey School of Public Affairs,...