Unemployment rate in Algeria continues the downward trend that began in the 2000’s, especially among the young, International Monetary Fund (IMF) experts, on a visit to Algeria, have stressed. The IMF mission, received at the ministry of Labour and Social Protection, emphasized "the ongoing fall in employment rate, and mainly among the young, confirming the findings of the annual surveys conducted by the National Office of Statistics (ONS)," the ministry said. Unemployment rate in Algeria dropped from 29.7% in 2000 to 10% in 2011, while the rate among the young between 16-24 years fell from 54.07% in 2000 to 22.4% in 2011, almost the half in 11 years, underlined the IMF experts, who were on a visit to Algeria from April 25 to May 2. They also noticed that unemployment among academics recorded a "significant drop" in 2011, while the general unemployment rate stood at 16.1% in the same year, against 21.4% in 2010.