Employment Increased in 2015 -KNBS Economic Survey

In 2015, total employment outside small-scale agriculture and pastoralist activities increased by 5.9 percent to 15,160.8 thousand persons according to an economic survey released by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics.

According to the survey, the economy generated a total of 841.6 thousand jobs of which 128.0 thousand jobs were in the modern sector while 713.6 thousand were in the informal sector, during the period under review. Wage employment within the public sector increased from 700.8 thousand persons in 2014 to 718.4 thousand persons in 2015.

Overall, total earnings increased from 1,311.1 billion shillings in 2014 to 1,497.3 billion shillings in 2015, representing a rise of 14.2 percent. Nominal average earnings per employee increased by 9.2 percent to 604,255.8 shillings per annum in 2015. Real average earnings per employee increase by 2.1 percent from 368,979.9 shillings per annum in 2014 to 376,577.2 shillings per annum in 2015 on account of easing of inflation rates coupled with faster growth in wages.

Inflation rate as measured by Consumer Price Index (CPI) declined from 6.9 percent in 2014 to 6.6 percent in 2015. The easing of inflation rate was largely due to reduced cost of petroleum products, electricity and tight monetary policies.

On the other hand, in 2015 the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) undertook several policies to support price stability and economic growth. Through the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), it focused on achieving and maintaining stability in the general price levels and raised the Central Bank Rate (CBR) from 8.5 percent to 10.0 percent in June, and further to 11.5 percent in July, 2015 to contain incipient inflationary pressures and stem exchange rate volatility.

The CBK also used Open Market Operations (OMO), repo securities and Term Auction Deposits (TAD), to sterilize excess liquidity in the money market and to reduce volatility of the interbank rate during the year.

Article by Juma Fred.