This volume is a follow-up to a 1998 publication by the Economic Research Forum (ERF). Its significance lies in the contributors’ reliance on fresh data and solid analytical techniques used to examine a wide spectrum of pertinent issues concerning the labor market in Egypt. The range of topics includes labor supply, employment and unemployment, youth labor market school-to-work transition, internal and international migration, earnings and inequality, and gender and education. The papers in this volume are the very first research available based on data collected in the Egypt Labor Market Panel Survey of 2006, a follow-up to the Egypt Labor Market Survey of 1998. The panel design used for collecting data is state-of-the-art methodology in the labor field, and has never before been implemented in Egypt on this scale. Contributors: Mohamed Fotouh Abulata, Mona Amer, Ragui Assaad, Ghada Barsoum, Asmaa Elbadawi, Fatma El Hamidi, Alia El Mahdi, Ali Rashed, Rania Roushdy, Mona Said, Jackline Wahba.

Ragui Assaad is professor of planning and public affairs at the University of Minnesota, and senior consulting associate at the Population Council. He has been an ERF research fellow since 1994.