Kenya Should Create 900,000 jobs annually to Curb Unemployment

Kenya should create at least 900,000 jobs annually to deal with the unemployment crisis between 2019 and 2025 according to a new report.

The new report by World Bank indicates that the rate of unemployment is likely to rise as youthful individuals are being exuded into the squeezed job markets every year.

Despite the growth of the Kenyan economy, the unemployment rate has been on a constant rise contributing to a job deficit in the country.

The Kenyan Government said that the economy grew by 6.3 percent in 2018 which resulted to the creation of 840,600 jobs, which was a drop compared to 2017’s 909,800 jobs created.

World Bank projects that between 2015 and 2025, at least nine million individuals are expected to join the labor market a situation that will increase the unemployment rate even further.

“This will contribute to a growing job deficit in the labor market in the future. Moreover, urban jobs are needed due to added pressure on urban labor markets from increasing urbanization,’’ says World Bank in their report.

In 2005, 60 percent of the working-age in Kenya was employed and the number has since risen to 76 percent in 2015 as World Bank reports.

World Bank reports that even though Kenya has had a rise in the number of the working population in recent years, most jobs are created through the informal agricultural sector, thus of low quality.

“In Kenya, only six percent of total employment is in the formal non-agricultural sector. Almost half of total employment, 49 percent, is informal non-agricultural employment, with the remaining 45 percent employed in agriculture.’’

The lender commended the Kenyan Government for increasing its expenditure on job programs but also suggests that the expenditure is a very small share of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Kenya spends 0.3 percent of Government expenditure on job programs, a very low rate compared to other low middle-income countries like Ghana and Brazil who have allocated at least 1.2 percent of the Government expenditures.

Local companies have also contributed to the high level of unemployment in Kenya as they continue to lay off employee’s day in day out. Job security is not guaranteed in some organizations.

Kenyan universities are vomiting thousands of graduands each year but job opportunities are very minimal to absorb even half of the graduands. Proper and Long-lasting measures are called for to tame these crises.