Strict unemployment stands at 10.8% for the first quarter of 2026. But the indicator the HCP now foregrounds — 22.5% labour under-utilisation — tells a different story, and it is the one that matters to employers.

Contents

  1. Why the HCP changed its measure
  2. What the breakdown by age, sex and area reveals
  3. The silent shortage: senior leadership
  4. Three responses that work
  5. What to stop doing

Why the HCP changed its measure

With the new labour-force survey (EMO2026) the HCP tightened its definition of unemployment: a person counts as unemployed if they are without work, available to work and actively seeking it. The result is a strict rate of 10.8%.

Alongside it, the HCP publishes a composite labour under-utilisation rate of 22.5%. That gap is what matters to a recruiter. It captures people in underemployment, discouraged workers, and those available but not actively searching — a labour reserve that does not show up in the unemployment figure yet exists in the market.

What this changes in practice. An employer reading “10.8% unemployment” concludes the market is tight. An employer reading “22.5% under-utilisation” understands there is a substantial pool that will not turn up in response to a job advert. The consequence is methodological: you have to go and find people, not wait for them.

What the breakdown reveals

15-24 ans29,2 %25-34 ans16,1 %Femmes16,1 %Urbain13,5 %Hommes9,4 %Rural6,1 %
Unemployment rate by category, Morocco, Q1 2026 (HCP, EMO2026).

Three gaps stand out. The 15-24 age group at 29.2% — close to one young active person in three. Women at 16.1% against 9.4% for men, a gap of nearly seven points which, for an employer, signals an under-used pool rather than a supply problem. And urban at 13.5% against 6.1% rural, which reflects the nature of agricultural and informal work more than an abundance of rural jobs.

For an HR function in Casablanca the useful reading is this: the urban basin concentrates both the pressure on employment and the skills mismatch. That is where employer brand makes the difference, because qualified candidates there have options.

The silent shortage: senior leadership

There is a mismatch that is rarely quantified: Morocco is not short of graduates, it is short of leaders able to convert industrial projects and governance reforms into sustained execution. That is not a volume problem but a bench-depth problem.

The cause is structural. A generation of managers was promoted on technical performance without passing through any leadership-development instrument. They hold executive roles with the reflexes of an excellent specialist — which works right up to the moment two directorates both have a legitimate case and someone has to choose.

The two levers that genuinely address this are executive coaching and succession planning. The first works on posture; the second organises the bench before it becomes urgent.

Key takeaways

  • Strict unemployment: 10.8% (Q1 2026). Composite under-utilisation: 22.5% — the second figure describes your market.
  • 15-24 age group: 29.2%. Women: 16.1% against 9.4% for men.
  • The pool exists but will not come to you: active sourcing is required.
  • The leadership shortage is about bench depth, not graduate volume.
  • The answers: active sourcing, employer brand, coaching and succession planning.

Three responses that work

  1. Source instead of advertising. If 22.5% of the workforce is under-used but not actively searching, a job advert does not reach them. Direct approach becomes the norm, not something reserved for executive roles.
  2. Hire for potential, train for the gap. Against a general skills mismatch, waiting for the perfect profile amounts to not hiring. Assessing potential and then funding the upskilling — including through the GIAC and OFPPT schemes — is faster and cheaper.
  3. Build the bench before you need it. A succession plan is prepared two years before a departure, not two months after the announcement.

What to stop doing

Two reflexes are expensive. Lengthening the requirements list when a search drags on: that shrinks the pool further without improving candidate quality. And treating retention as a pay question: in a market where qualified candidates have options, they leave for management and prospects, and a salary counter-offer only buys time.

Secure your key positions

Direct approach, potential assessment, succession planning: we work where a casting error costs the most.

See our approach

Sources : HCP — enquête sur la main-d’œuvre (EMO2026) · Haut-Commissariat au Plan · OFPPT