Kenya’s unemployment rate has hit 43.5 percent according to an official from the National Employment Authority (NEA).
The shocking statistics contradicts all the other statistics that have been in the public domain for long about the actual state of the unemployment rate in Kenya.
In 2017, the World Bank had estimated the unemployment rate in Kenya to be at 39.1 percent, the highest in the whole of the East African Region.
Kenya’s unemployment rate is still ahead of Tanzania’s which stands at 24 percent while that of Ethiopia is at 21.9 percent. The unemployment rate in Uganda is at 18.1 percent.
Figures from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), however, give numbers on unemployment that are much lower than the reality. According to them, the unemployment rate by the end of 2017 was at 11.50 percent and only reached an all-time high of 12.20 percent in 2009.
At one point, in their Labor Force Basic Report of 2015/2016, KNBS indicated that the unemployment rate in Kenya had dropped to 7.4 percent. According to the agency, only 1,435,800 Kenyans were unemployed then.
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The Kenyan Youth
Stats show that 70 to 80 percent of Kenyan youth are without meaningful employment. This means that currently, 7 to 8 in 10 youths in Kenya has no job.
Most of the unemployed youth have what it takes in terms of academic qualifications from institutions of higher learning such as universities.
More than 40,000 people graduate from institutions of higher learning in Kenya annually. The Kenyan job market is already saturated with the absorption rate in the white-collar sector being less than 3 percent.
The increased number of job seekers has left millions desperate with nowhere to run to. This has led to an increase in criminal activities around the country.
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The SME Sector
Many young people who have failed to secure jobs in the mainstream have taken to the small medium enterprise (SME).
The SME sector in Kenya employs 86 percent of the population and contributes 45 percent to Kenya’s gross domestic product (GDP).
The sector is, however, ailing. Statistics show that 400,000 SMEs die annually in Kenya with almost 90 percent of them not being able to see their second birthday.
These statistics mean that more than 30,000 small medium enterprises are dying monthly with more than 1000 of them facing their demise daily.
The small medium enterprise sector in Kenya has been through a tough economic turmoil and if nothing is done soon, the sector will be choked to death, putting the country’s economy on the brink of collapsing.
News that close to 2 million MSMEs were closed down in five years to 2016 is worrying and with the prevailing political situation in the country, the sector is already hard hit.
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