By FRANKLINE SUNDAY
Kenya: University graduates may have to turn to the informal sector or self-employment as new data indicates that job vacancies in the formal sector are shrinking.
According to the 2013 economic survey released on Thursday, Kenya saw a decline in job creation in the formal sector for the first time in three years with only 68,000 new jobs being created in 2012, compared to 74,200 created in 2011.
This is the first time the formal sector has reduced the number of new graduates it employed since it shed more than 50,000 jobs in the 2008/2009 financial year, a period following the post-election violence.
This year, the firms that employed the highest number of people were in ICT, education, health and building and construction sectors.
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A vibrant property market stimulated by a reduction in the cost of borrowing lifted the building and construction sector to a growth of 4.8 per cent in 2012 compared to a growth of 4.3 per cent in a similar period last year.
The total value of new private and public buildings completed went up by almost 10 per cent to stand at Sh50.8 billion compared to Sh46.4 billion in 2011. In addition, a 5.3 per cent growth in the communication sub-sector driven by increased mobile and Internet penetration and growth of mobile money transfer services contributed towards the formal sector job pool.
Overall, however, job creation improved marginally with 660,000 new jobs compared to 520,000 in 2011 with more than 90 per cent of the new jobs in the informal sector. However, the majority of jobs created in the informal sector have no security, are high risk and offer no guarantee of a clear career growth path.
On wages, Kenyan workers were said to take home five per cent less in wages and salaries in 2012 compared to a similar period in 2011 due to rising inflation.
