Haut commissariat au plan (HCP)

The objective of this note is to analyze the main characteristics of the Moroccan labor market, in particular the evolution of employment in qualitative and quantitative terms. This note also highlights the constraints of the labor market development and identifies the policies that can make the labor market more dynamic and inclusive in order to better contribute to improving the population’s standard of living. This work is the result of a collaboration between the HCP and the World Bank. It is part of a broader “Systematic Country Diagnosis” (SCD) study carried out by the World Bank, in close consultation with the national authorities. The SCD is a diagnostic exercise, aiming to identify the main challenges and opportunities to achieve two objectives:

Morocco is the only Maghreb country to have experienced no episode of decline in national wealth, over the last fifteen years. Thus, per capita GDP grew by an average of 3.2% per year between 2000 and 2015. However, while average per capita GDP growth was higher than that of France (0.7%) and the average for the Middle East and North Africa region (1.9%), it remained well below countries such as India (5.4%) and China (9.0%). Morocco is in a process of catching up with the countries of southern Europe but is not growing fast enough and stable enough to join the ranks of emerging countries. Morocco, on the other hand, is penalized by the low efficiency of investment, public investment in particular.