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Dec. 05, 2017, 12:00 am
By PEACE WAMBUA @peace_wambua
The rate of unemployment in Kenya is rising with 53 per cent of respondents in a survey conducted in September out of jobs.
This has partly been blamed on election-related layoffs and a generally underperforming economy, the Job Market Report released yesterday by the Trends and Insights For Africa, a research firm, showed.
The conclusion of the survey could mean that the overall rate of unemployment in the country is now more than 39 per cent that was reported by the United Nations Human Development Index report released in May.
According to this report, political campaigns that have precipitated pockets of insecurities in parts of the country have resulted in drastic drops in available job opportunities in places prevalent with political activity.
“There was a drastic 17 per cent drop in job opportunities during the August polls as compared to an average of the last three months. There was an immediate recovery in September with a 10 per cent increase in job opportunities, then followed by another 29 per cent drop in October when Kenya was conducting its repeat polls,” Emmanuel Mutuma, the CEO of BrighterMonday, a job's website, said.
As per those interviewed, factors that contributed to the high unemployment rate were lack of experience (58 per cent of respondents), high numbers of graduates (53 per cent) and few jobs opportunities (50 per cent). Another 28 of those interviewed said they have been laid off in the past one year.
The survey further showed that people actively looking for jobs fall into three categories namely, the unemployed who account for 53 per cent of the job market, 41 per cent employed individuals, while 6 per cent are self-employed.
Most of the job seekers use online platforms to search for employment with 65 per cent mentions. The research also showed that traditional job advertising platforms such as newspapers are at 12 per cent of usage. But even with these platforms, the challenge with Kenyan job seekers is that they are highly educated but not multi- skilled.
“It is becoming critical for job seekers to become trained and competent in multiple skills-sets which may or may not be part of their job description which is what employers are looking for,” TIFA Research chief executive officer Maggie Ireri said.
She added that the existence of such employees within a company has immense benefits from increased productivity to reduced labor costs because companies do not have to hire additional people.
The report showed that 97 per cent of people have not been employed within the last five years with 70 per cent of them being youth.
Unemployment rate rises over prolonged polls, poor economy
By PEACE WAMBUA @peace_wambua
The rate of unemployment in Kenya is rising with 53 per cent of respondents in a survey conducted in September out of jobs.
This has partly been blamed on election-related layoffs and a generally underperforming economy, the Job Market Report released yesterday by the Trends and Insights For Africa, a research firm, showed.
The conclusion of the survey could mean that the overall rate of unemployment in the country is now more than 39 per cent that was reported by the United Nations Human Development Index report released in May.
According to this report, political campaigns that have precipitated pockets of insecurities in parts of the country have resulted in drastic drops in available job opportunities in places prevalent with political activity.
“There was a drastic 17 per cent drop in job opportunities during the August polls as compared to an average of the last three months. There was an immediate recovery in September with a 10 per cent increase in job opportunities, then followed by another 29 per cent drop in October when Kenya was conducting its repeat polls,” Emmanuel Mutuma, the CEO of BrighterMonday, a job's website, said.
As per those interviewed, factors that contributed to the high unemployment rate were lack of experience (58 per cent of respondents), high numbers of graduates (53 per cent) and few jobs opportunities (50 per cent). Another 28 of those interviewed said they have been laid off in the past one year.
The survey further showed that people actively looking for jobs fall into three categories namely, the unemployed who account for 53 per cent of the job market, 41 per cent employed individuals, while 6 per cent are self-employed.
Most of the job seekers use online platforms to search for employment with 65 per cent mentions. The research also showed that traditional job advertising platforms such as newspapers are at 12 per cent of usage. But even with these platforms, the challenge with Kenyan job seekers is that they are highly educated but not multi- skilled.
“It is becoming critical for job seekers to become trained and competent in multiple skills-sets which may or may not be part of their job description which is what employers are looking for,” TIFA Research chief executive officer Maggie Ireri said.
She added that the existence of such employees within a company has immense benefits from increased productivity to reduced labor costs because companies do not have to hire additional people.
The report showed that 97 per cent of people have not been employed within the last five years with 70 per cent of them being youth.
Unemployment rate rises over prolonged polls, poor economy