Tech fuels job losses

Technology adeptness has come at a price for workers as more jobs are taken up by machines. [Courtesy]

Technology continues to revolutionalise the workplace, with companies becoming more efficient and effective.

But this adeptness has come at a price for workers more jobs are taken up by machines.

For instance, agricultural firm Sasini in its annual report last year said it has since 2016 shed 2,182 jobs due to increased mechanisation.

This has, in turn, seen the Nairobi Securities Exchange-listed company make huge savings on labour costs, which came down by 16 per cent last year, a trend that is becoming common among many companies.

Grace Githaiga from the Kenya ICT Action Network said technology is a double-edged sword.

She said while it has been blamed on the ongoing wave of job losses across the world, “it has also opened up opportunities for new things.”

Technology has given rise to ride-hailing apps such as Uber and Bolt, which are edging out traditional taxis, rendering many people jobless.

“We are completely out of business. We stay out here the whole day without jobs because we cannot match up to the discounted prices that Uber and other apps have set,” said Njoroge, a Nairobi-based taxi driver who has refused to sign up to any of the new platforms.

“The customers keep complaining and comparing our prices to ride-hailing apps. It is frustrating because sometimes they want us to charge them the app rates,” he added. On some days, he goes without getting a customer.

Watch repairers are also becoming an extinct breed, with fewer people now adorning the timepieces as they can check the time on their phones or computers.

The once crucial accessory has also evolved, with many brands now becoming digital.

“Only the older generation knows about mechanical watches,” said Richard Kimani, a watch repairer based in Nairobi’s Central Business District. 

But according to Bitange Ndemo, a professor of entrepreneurship at the University of Nairobi’s Business School, “technology is not to blame for job losses, what causes job losses is lack of reskilling of the human resource.”