The Tunisian labor market is sending mixed signals at the start of 2026. According to the latest press release from the statistics department, the overall unemployment rate recorded a modest but positive decrease, standing at 15% in the first quarter, compared to 15.2% in the last three months of 2025.
This improvement is explained by job creation dynamics that outpaced the increase in the labor force.
A growing labor force, driven by the services sector
During the first three months of the year, Tunisia’s labor force expanded to reach 4.268 million individuals, an increase of 13,000 people in one quarter. The activity rate thus recovered by 0.5 points to settle at 45.9%.
At the same time, the economy absorbed this influx with the appearance of 16,500 new employed persons (bringing the total number of workers to 3.626 million). Unsurprisingly, the country’s economic structure remains massively dominated by the tertiary sector.
Indeed, Services remain the main employment engine, concentrating 52.9% of the employed labor force, while Manufacturing industries rank second with 19%, Agriculture and fishing maintain their role as a social buffer at 15.7%, and Non-manufacturing industries bring up the rear with 12.3%.
Gender and geographical inequalities slightly diminish
Although gaps remain structurally high, the reduction in unemployment benefits both sexes overall. Male unemployment fell from 12.6% at the end of 2025 to 12.3% at the start of 2026. For women, the decrease is more marginal, slipping from 20.8% to 20.5%.
Geographically, the INS points to a persistent disparity between areas: the unemployment rate is better contained in urban areas (14.4%) than in rural areas, where it still peaks at 16.5%.
Worrying situation of higher education graduates
Behind these generally encouraging figures hides a much darker reality for qualified youth. Admittedly, youth unemployment (ages 15-24) contracted slightly to 37.5% (compared to 38.4% in the previous quarter).
However, higher education graduates are experiencing a serious setback. In the space of three months, their unemployment rate jumped nearly two points, from 22.5% to 24.2%.
This deterioration hits young female graduates hard, whose unemployment rate has reached the alarming level of 32% (compared to 14.2% for their male counterparts).
This chronic gap between job creation, mainly concentrated in low-value-added service sectors or the informal economy, and the aspirations of skills coming out of Tunisian universities remains, more than ever, the main economic and social challenge for the government in the coming quarters.
