The unemployment rate in Tunisia declined by 2.2 pc in 2012 compared to 2011, reaching 16.7% in the fourth quarter of 2012 against 18.9% over the same period of 2011, according to latest statistics of the National Institute of Statistics (INS), the ministry of vocational training and employment said in a statement released Thursday and quoted by TAP.
According to the results of the national census on population and employment conducted by the INS every three months, the number of new job positions created for the period amounted to 11,000, excluding the results of the most staffing competitions in the public service, which began in late 2012.
The number of unemployed fell from 738,000 in early 2012 to more than 653,000 by 2012, the unemployment rate for university graduates has declined to 34.2% in the first quarter of 2012 and to 33.2% in the last quarter 2012. That of males fell to 13.9% in the fourth quarter of 2012 against 15.4 pc over the same period of 2011 and female unemployment went down to 24.2% against 28.2% over the same period.
The INS census results show that unemployment rate declined in most regions except for the Tunis district where it increased by 17.2% in the last quarter of 2011 and to 17.4% during the same period of 2012.
