Morocco jobless rate eases to 9.6 pct in 2008

RABAT (Reuters) - Morocco's 2008 jobless rate fell to 9.6 percent last year from 9.8 percent in the previous year on growth in urban job creation which offset weakness in the farming sector, official figures showed on Monday.

As a result, the number of jobless fell to 1.78 million in 2008, most of them university and high school graduates, the state High Planning Commission said in a statement.

Unemployment fell to 14.7 percent in the country's towns and cities last year from 15.4 in the previous year but grew 4 percent from 3.8 percent in the countryside.

Most of the 153,000 jobes created in the cities last year were in services and construction sectors while the weather-sensitive farming sector shed 20,000 jobs, the Commission added.

The government plans to develop new industries to create more jobs in the North African country's fast-growing cities and cut reliance on agriculture, which accounts for about 40 percent of employment and up to 17 percent of gross domestic product.

According to an official report, Morocco needs to create 400,000 jobs per year over a decade from 2006 to prevent mass unemployment.

The government aims to create 1.2 million new jobs for the 2008-2012 period compared to an estimated 800,000 in the previous year