The Tunisian labor market has been characterized by structural unemployment for decades, which is why employment is a national priority, reflected in reforms and sector strategies, as well as in development plans, including the 2023-2025 development plan.
To address this situation, it is necessary to move from a set of active labor market policies to a multidimensional and transversal national employment strategy, covering all the levers likely to create jobs in sufficient quantity and quality and bringing together a wide range of actors concerned with employment.
In this sense, the number of employment actions carried out by the Employment and Self-Employment Offices increased in 2023 to reach 50,588 against 45,521 in 2022, an increase of 11 pc, according to the annual activity report of the National Agency for Employment and Self-Employment (ANETI) for the year 2023.
The services sector was the most important in terms of employment, with 26,477 jobs, of which 5,690 will in commerce (21.5 pc) and 4,522 in education (17 pc).
65 pc of all employment transactions were with jobseekers from outside the economy in 2023, due to the labor needs of companies in the economy, particularly in the ready-to-wear clothing industry, the manufacture of electronic equipment and tourism.
On the other hand, the share of tertiary graduates integrated in business enterprises reached 38.9 pc among all integrated.
In addition, job offers increased by 3.6 pc in 2023 compared to 2022, especially for non-executive candidates (32,395 job offers), an increase of 74.5 pc among all job offers.
According to this report, the manufacturing sector is in first place in terms of job offers in 2023, with 22,614 offers (52 pc), especially in the ready-made clothing sector (4,754 offers) and the manufacture of electronic equipment (4,736 offers).
The services sector is in second place with 18,526 vacancies (42.6%), particularly in the tourism (6,148 vacancies) and trade (3,801 vacancies) sectors.
Unemployment rate down by 0.2
The number of unemployed fell to 661,700 in the second quarter, compared with 669,300 in the first quarter of this year.
The unemployment rate in Tunisia recorded a slight decrease of 0.2% in the second quarter of this year compared to the statistics recorded in the first quarter, according to employment figures published by the National Statistics Institute (INS).
The INS estimated the unemployment rate at 16% in the second quarter of this year, compared with 16.2% in the first quarter of the same year.
The number of unemployed fell to 661,700 in the second quarter, compared with 669,300 in the first quarter of this year.
The male unemployment rate was 13.6% in the first and second quarters of 2024, while the female unemployment rate fell to 21.3% in the second quarter of 2024, compared with 22% in the first quarter of the same year.
The unemployment rate for those with tertiary education decreased to 23% in the second quarter of 2024, compared to 23.4% in the first quarter. The difference between men and women with tertiary education is 13.4% and 30.6% respectively.
However, the unemployment rate for young people aged 15-24 went up to 41% in the second quarter of 2024, compared to 39.2% in the first quarter of the same year.