Youth Employment Emergency: Bank Al-Maghrib sounds the alarm, what immediate solutions?

In 2026, talking about youth employment in Morocco will no longer be a secondary subject. The warning signals are converging. Bank Al-Maghrib recalls that, despite the resilience of the economy, the labor market remains fragile: the country created 82,000 jobs in 2024, but has still not returned to its pre-pandemic employment level, even though more than 275,000 people reach working age each year. Unemployment reached 13.3% in 2024 and the activity rate remains low. Young people remain the most exposed: according to the HCP, unemployment among 15-24 year olds reached 36.7% on average in 2024 and 38.4% in the third quarter of 2025.

This observation requires a lucid reading. The problem is not only that “young people are not trained enough” or that “companies are not recruiting”. The blockage is deeper: the economy creates too few quality jobs in relation to demographic pressure, integration remains difficult for graduates, young women remain massively under-participated, and informality continues to absorb a significant part of professional trajectories. The World Bank also notes that many young people first identify the lack of offers as the main obstacle, even before the skills gap.

Bank Al-Maghrib does not publish an activist column on youth employment, but its data is enough to understand the urgency. In its 2024 annual report, the central bank highlights a paradox that has become structural: non-agricultural activity is progressing, but this dynamic is not enough to compensate for prolonged losses in agriculture nor to absorb the annual arrival of new assets. The job market therefore remains unattractive, with a low activity rate, particularly for women. The warning is less rhetorical than macroeconomic: without stronger and better targeted job creation, growth will not automatically translate into professional integration.

Reducing the crisis to a simple “mismatch” between diplomas and market needs would be convenient, but incomplete. The most credible diagnosis is broader.

First, the market still offers too few formal and stable jobs compared to the number of young people entering working life. The World Bank points out that many young people attribute their unemployment to the absence of offers, the opacity of recruitment, networks and favoritism, more than to a simple lack of skills. She also recalls that a significant portion of young employees remains dissatisfied with the quality of their work, the level of remuneration or the stability offered.

Then, the weakness of female participation continues to slow down the entire labor market. This is a central point in recent diagnoses: youth employment cannot be treated seriously without integrating the question of women's access to the labor market, childcare services, territorial obstacles and social norms that weigh on activity.

Finally, the productive fabric itself remains a challenge. The World Bank insists, in its announcement of April 10, 2026, on the need to create more dynamic companies, particularly SMEs capable of growing, hiring and absorbing young profiles. The subject is therefore not only educational; it is also entrepreneurial, productive and institutional.

The first immediate solution for young people is not to “apply everywhere”, but to target sectors where the demand is more concrete: industry, renewable energies, energy efficiency, technical services, construction, logistics, structured tourism, exporting pharmacy and support functions for growing SMEs. The financing approved by the World Bank in April 2026 places emphasis on SMEs, clean energy, energy efficiency and the export-oriented pharmaceutical industry. This gives a useful signal: the best opportunities will come less from saturated sectors than from sectors aligned with new investment priorities.

The right answer is not necessarily to return to a long course. Young people have an interest in favoring formats that shorten the distance with the employer: work-study training, supervised internships, operational certifications, technical specialization, career-oriented courses and company-related schemes. The OFPPT points out that work-study training is based on a clear logic: 50% in establishments and 50% in companies, precisely to improve the training-employment match. The World Bank also notes that vocational training, guidance and advice are viewed positively by many young people, provided they are linked to real opportunities.

In a tight market, the diploma alone is less convincing than before. What matters more is proof of utility. A young candidate must be able to show what he knows how to do: a project, an internship, field experience, a mini-portfolio, a certification, an associative mission, freelance experience, or even personal work demonstrating his ability to solve a concrete problem. This logic is consistent with recent diagnoses on employment: the blockage often comes as much from access to the first signal of professional credibility as from the academic content itself.

The initial article was right on one point: many young people look at entrepreneurship as a possible outcome. But we must avoid easy talk. The World Bank shows that young Moroccans often express a strong entrepreneurial aspiration, while recognizing a lack of experience, capital and management skills. Entrepreneurship can therefore be an immediate solution, but only if it is based on real support, basic management skills and a solvent project. Otherwise, it risks shifting the problem.

In a context where opportunities are fragmented, young people need tools that shorten search time and improve the readability of their profile. This is where an ecosystem like Huntzen can be mentioned, but in a measured way: its public pages above all show an offers aggregator, matching, an ATS analysis of CVs, career coaching and tools to better prepare your application. Used as support for job searching, profile clarification or visibility, it makes sense. Presenting it as an institutional response to Bank Al-Maghrib's alert would, however, be excessive.

Young people cannot carry the burden of adaptation alone. Companies must broaden their career entry recruitment practices: more qualifying internships, more work-study programs, more recruitment based on skills rather than academic pedigree, more bridges with training establishments. On the public authorities' side, the most credible priorities are already known: strengthening active employment policies, better aligning training with the needs of the private sector, supporting the emergence of more dynamic SMEs, reducing obstacles to investment and removing obstacles to female activity. These are precisely the areas supported by the World Bank in the program approved in April 2026.

The alert on youth employment in Morocco is very real. But the Gemini text oversimplifies the diagnosis and attributes to Bank Al-Maghrib formulations and solutions that I did not find as such in the official sources. The situation is more serious, but also more interesting to understand: the problem does not come only from the skills of young people, but from the volume of jobs created, the quality of positions, informality, the structure of businesses and persistent obstacles to investment and female participation.

The right editorial response is therefore not to vaguely dramatize it, nor to stick a layer of advertising on it. It consists of articulating three levels of action: more targeted public policies, companies more open to career entry recruitment, and young people who quickly build proof of employability. This is where the article becomes credible.