CAIRO, Jan 20 (Aswat Masriya) - Minister of Labour Mohamed Saafan said in press statements on Thursday that the unemployment percentage among women exceeds 25%, "which is unprecedented."

He also stressed on the importance of increasing efforts to overcome this plight.

Moreover, Saafan said that as Egypt embarks on the "year of women," there should be significant change in increasing women's role.

The National Council for Women outlined the 2030 development strategy for gender equality last week. The strategy tackles an array of subjects; chiefly sexual harassment, Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), and empowering women entrepreneurs.

In the latest census of the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS), the unemployment rates among youth slightly dropped to 12.7% during the first quarter of 2016, compared to the same quarter of 2015 which reached 12.8%.

The centre report stated that unemployment rate among youth aging between 15 to 29 years reached 27.3%