Morocco's unemployment rate surged to 13.7% in the first three months of 2023 from 12.9% in the same period last year, as the farming sector continues to shed jobs due to drought, the statistics agency HCP said on Friday.

As of the end of March, there were 1.64 million unemployed people in Morocco with the agricultural sector having lost 206,000 jobs, HCP said in a report.

The unemployment rate among young people stood at 35.9%. Among graduates it stood at 20.3% and among women at 20.1%, HCP said.

(Reporting by Ahmed Eljechtimi; Editing by Kevin Liffey)