Kenya job growth surged by 00.9 million to 17.8 million in 2018 compared to 16.9 million in 2017, with only 840,000 new jobs created, the 2019 Economic Survey report indicates.
Out of the new jobs created, 83.6% came from the informal sector and 16.4% in the formal sector. Compared to 2017 where 897,000 jobs were created, this was a decline.
“This implies that the economy generated an extra 840.6 thousand jobs in 2018. In the modern sector, total employment increased from 2.8 million persons in 2017 to 2.9 million persons in 2018. Jobs in the informal sector which constituted 83.6% of total employment, increased by 5.4% to 14.9 million persons.”
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The report published by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) noted that Education, Agriculture, and manufacturing sectors were leading employers accounting for over 43% in all jobs.
“The leading activities providing wage employment in the private sector were Agriculture, forestry and fishing; manufacturing and; wholesale and retail trade and repair of motor vehicles, accounting for 15.3, 14.6 and 13.5% of the total private sector employment, respectively,” the survey indicates.
