Manufacturing, agriculture sectors emerge top employers last year

Manufacturing, Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing as well as Wholesale and retail trade industries were the top three employers in 2021.

The three sectors accounted for 15.8%, 14.9%, and 12.9% of the total private sector employment respectively.

The latest economic survey by the Kenya Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) further that private-sector jobs grew by 6% to 2.9 million in 2021.

The informal sector created 754,000 jobs accounting for 81.4% of the total jobs created outside of small-scale agriculture and pastoralist activities.

The rate of unemployment more than halved between 2006 and 2016 to near three percent.

However, joblessness has been rising gradually since 2017, exceeding 5% in 2019.

Since then the situation has moved from bad to worse, with data from the KNBS, showing that the unemployment rate in Kenya shot to 10.4% in 2020 amid the Covid- 19 where 1.7 million Kenyans lost their jobs.

One year later, prospects of securing a job are looking up if the latest economic survey is to go by.

The report says the economy is now creating jobs, with Manufacturing, Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing as well as Wholesale and retail trade sectors creating the most jobs in 2021.

There was a turnaround in Accommodation and Food Services which recorded a significant growth of 23.9% compared to a decline of 38.7% registered in 2020.

This was followed by Administrative and Support Service Activities, Education, and, Arts and Entertainment at 20.8%, 16.3%, and 15.9%, respectively.

The easing of the pandemic restrictions impacted positively the employment in the Accommodation and Food Activities industry.

The report further shows major gender job disparity with male employees accounting for 60.7% of the total wage employment in 2021.

Education, Manufacturing, Public Administration, and Defence; compulsory social security engaged the largest number of males accounting for 17.6%, 13.7% and 12.4% of total males engaged, respectively.

On the other hand, the majority of female employees were working in Education accounting for 26.4% of total females engaged in the modern sector.

During the review period nominal average earnings per employee increased by 2.3% to Kshs. 827, 400 compared to a 3.1% increase in 2020.

Real average earnings decreased by 3.8% to Kshs. 718,800 in 2021.