Although it is well-established in the literature that unemployment is a labor market insertion
problem in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), the dynamics driving youth
unemployment remain poorly understood. Using panel and retrospective data from the Labor
Market Panel Surveys in Egypt, Jordan and Tunisia, we are able to substantially improve our
understanding of youth unemployment in MENA by studying flows into and out of
employment and unemployment. We also decompose trends in the unemployment rates in
Egypt, Jordan, and Tunisia over the past decade into the contributions of individuals entering
unemployment from outside the labor force and from previous employment, and changes in
the duration of unemployment these individuals experience. Models for the incidence and
duration of unemployment illustrate the relationship between individuals’ characteristics and
their unemployment dynamics.