New study finds Egypt’s paid care workforce has been shrinking since 2015 — the workers left behind are less insured, less protected, and lower paid

💼🧑‍💼 Egypt’s paid care workforce — the teachers, nurses, and domestic workers staffing schools, hospitals, and homes — has shrunk as a share of total employment every year since 2015

That is the central argument of a peer-reviewed paper published in June in the Journal for Labour Market Research LinkedIn LinkedIn

In Om El Donia, the care sector is the largest employer of women of any sector in the Arab region Care Work and Care Jobs report

Why has the public sector retreated? falling since 2015

The price of privatization

As public sector care employment has contracted, the private sector has grown — but not on equivalent terms.

The share of care workers without a formal contract nearly doubled between 2012 and 2018

At the bottom: domestic workers

Domestic workers — nannies, housekeepers, and personal carers employed directly in private homes — occupy a category of their own.

Left hanging? previously reported Al Ahram

Un-shrinking care employment?

The study doesn’t reach a conclusive single fix.