The current economic reforms embarked by Egypt could be undermined by different challenges including
youth unemployment that remains at the center of policy debates since the January 2011 Egyptian
Revolution. As result of high unemployment, the youth face increasing level of exclusion. A key reason of
youth unemployment is the poor human capital investment that results in serious skills mismatch problem.
This paper argues that increasing job creation is a necessary but not sufficient condition to solve youth
unemployment in Egypt as many employers reported having difficulty filling current job vacancies due to
skills shortage. Therefore, there is a need to refocus Active Labor Market Policies on building a skilled
labor force to support the reintegration of the unemployed into the labor market. The proposed
intervention is launching a national skills development and employment program that uses technologybased
solutions to offer a bundle of services including projecting future skills demanded by the labor
market, bridging information gap, offering targeted training programs and career counseling services as
well as improving job matching and job search efficiency.