CAIRO: Egypt’s unemployment rate has risen to 11.9 percent in the first quarter of 2011, the head of the national census bureau said on Wednesday, blaming the rise on an economic slump following the country’s January uprising.
Abu Bakr Al-Guindy said that unemployment in the last quarter of 2010 was 8.9 percent, the official MENA news agency reported.
The agency quoted him as saying that "the rise in unemployment was a result of the negative effects that accompanied the January 25 revolution and a consequent economic slowdown."
Egypt’s economy was rocked by 18-days of protests that forced president Hosni Mubarak to resign on Feb.11.
The ruling military has warned that the economy could deteriorate even further as the country suffers from a security vacuum and recurring sectarian unrest.
Unemployment in the country of 80-million people was one of the grievances of protesters who joined the revolt to oust Mubarak, whose government was viewed as corrupt.
