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In Egypt, Ranks of Young and Hopeless Are Swelling

Youth unemployment in Egypt now stands at over 40 percent. The government is already bloated with unproductive civil servants; and, in the country's stagnant economy, the private sector is incapable of absorbing the scores of new workers who join the labor market each year.

It's the young and educated who fare the worst: In Egypt’s broken system, university graduates are more likely to be jobless than the country’s near-illiterate.

VOA's Hamada Elrasam spoke with young Cairenes about their lives and prospects for the future.
Left: "I had my business in electronics and security cameras. One day I found my storage unit burned down," Soma’a, 32, told VOA. "Here in downtown, during the past few years, there were many clashes with fireworks and teargas canisters, and it wasn’t the first time that my place got exposed to fires. Every time we were able to fight the fires, but this time it was late at night. Right: Protesters react to fireworks during clashes in downtown Cairo.
5 Left: "I had my business in electronics and security cameras. One day I found my storage unit burned down," Soma’a, 32, told VOA. "Here in downtown, during the past few years, there were many clashes with fireworks and teargas canisters, and it wasn’t the first time that my place got exposed to fires. Every time we were able to fight the fires, but this time it was late at night.
Right: Protesters react to fireworks during clashes in downtown Cairo.
Left: "I go to agricultural school but I work in recycling and during my days off, I work with building construction to pay for my school fees and help my family. I would like to cultivate a land in the desert," said Ali Hassan Asiute. Right: Part of the western desert of Egypt.
6 Left: "I go to agricultural school but I work in recycling and during my days off, I work with building construction to pay for my school fees and help my family. I would like to cultivate a land in the desert," said Ali Hassan Asiute.
Right: Part of the western desert of Egypt.
Left: "In his family's fresh juice shop in Cairo the price of everything is going up, electricity, fruits, sugar and ready-made ice," explained Magdy, 27. "What we used to sell for 1 Egyptian pound like sugar cane juice now costs us 2 Egyptian pounds. Right: Fruits markets are stagnant due to the rapid rise of prices in Cairo, Egypt.
7 Left: "In his family's fresh juice shop in Cairo the price of everything is going up, electricity, fruits, sugar and ready-made ice," explained Magdy, 27. "What we used to sell for 1 Egyptian pound like sugar cane juice now costs us 2 Egyptian pounds.
Right: Fruits markets are stagnant due to the rapid rise of prices in Cairo, Egypt.
Left: Mahmoud Youssef 22, who works as a supermarket delivery man in Cairo, holds an automatic gun during his brother’s wedding in the upper Egypt province of Fayoum. “We don’t use these weapons for fights we just use it in weddings and celebrations, it is also a good show off that we have these weapons here, no body will think of initiating problems with us," he told VOA. Right: A pro Egyptian government shows up holding an automatic weapon in Kerdasa a district in Giza after a police station was attacked by the supporters of the ousted president Mohamed Morsi with RPG an other heavy weapons.
8 Left: Mahmoud Youssef 22, who works as a supermarket delivery man in Cairo, holds an automatic gun during his brother’s wedding in the upper Egypt province of Fayoum. “We don’t use these weapons for fights we just use it in weddings and celebrations, it is also a good show off that we have these weapons here, no body will think of initiating problems with us," he told VOA.
Right: A pro Egyptian government shows up holding an automatic weapon in Kerdasa a district in Giza after a police station was attacked by the supporters of the ousted president Mohamed Morsi with RPG an other heavy weapons.

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