Transition from School-to-Work in Egypt: An Update on Young People Labor Market Conditions in the Wake of the January 25th Revolution

Irene N. Selwaness, Cairo University
Rania Roushdy, Population Council

This paper updates the state of knowledge on young people school-to-work transition in Egypt in the wake of the January 25th revolution. The hard labor market conditions following the revolution have been widely documented in the news, but very little data have been available to appropriately analyze those effects. We use panel data from two rich nationally representative surveys: the 2006 and 2012 Egyptian Labor Market Panel Surveys (ELMPSs). Such cross-sectional panel data offers unique opportunity to gain a before-and-after picture of youth employment conditions and returns to education during this critical period of Egypt’s history. The paper explores the revolution effect on probability of transiting to a first job, and the duration of this transition. It also investigates how the revolution affected job quality and job mobility among youth. We expect to provide evidence of the hardship position which young people have been facing during the 2006-2012 period.