Skilled and unemployed: Why construction sector is slow to absorb qualified job seekers

A report by the Architectural Association of Kenya shows that absorption of professional services in the construction industry is at 20 per cent. [Courtesy]

Amid an aggressive plan by the government to build houses, behind the curtain, job seekers in the built environment are getting a cold reception from the sector that is outwardly thriving. They are unable to secure jobs despite completing their studies.

A report by the Architectural Association of Kenya (AAK) claims that absorption of professional services in the construction industry is at 20 per cent. Additionally, the survey by the institution shows that nine in every 10 graduates – both bachelors and diploma holders – are still out in the cold.

These revelations seem to contradict what the government has always chorused that the taxpayer funded Affordable Housing Program has facilitated hundreds of thousands of jobs.

It was one of the anchors behind the 1.5 per cent levy Kenyans are deducted from their gross pay monthly. Numbers as at November 2025 presented by President William Ruto stood at 600,000 employees.

These figures are, however, yet to be authenticated. The plan is to have this figure hit one million in 2026 as the government looks to provide a similar number of units in five years.

Data from the Affordable Housing Board shows that the programme has so far completed 3,171 units which are already occupied while 128,028 are still under construction.

But according to the Budget Policy Statement 2026 by the National Treasury which is the grounding of the 2026/2027 budget, the Affordable Housing Programme has generated over 428,000 jobs, up from 17,744 in 2022 to 330,000 by 2025. 

“Jobs span across technical and professional fields, including masons, carpenters, electricians, plumbers, architects, engineers, surveyors, and real estate specialists, as well as thousands of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) engaged in fittings, fabrication, and interior works,” reads the policy statement.

The AAK’s report points out that the alignment between graduate output and industry demand is significantly uneven.

“Built environment courses produce more graduates than what the sector can absorb,” the report says.

But one of the reasons as documented by AAK’s Status of the Built Environment Report 2025 is the unregulated nature of some of the courses such as landscape architecture offered in universities and colleges.

The regulators do not recognise these courses and neither does the industry hence the joblessness.

Skilled workers needed

The report notes that by November 2025 there were an estimated 2,585-degree graduates and 2,014 diploma holders who had completed their studies in universities and national polytechnics.

“Yet, the sector remains unable to absorb its annual output: A July 2025 AAK survey found that 90 per cent of the 1,709 sampled graduates and diploma holders were unemployed, despite the fact that these skilled professionals are urgently needed, as the uptake of professional services in construction projects in Kenya remains low at just 20 per cent,” the report reads.

Of the surveyed job seekers, 718 (42 per cent) were technicians and 991 (58 per cent) were graduates. The majority of respondents (513) were from the engineering profession, followed by quantity surveying (268) and architecture (213).

The survey was also to inform the launch of an onboarding programme for 4,000 graduates and technicians overseen by the State Department for Housing and Urban Development.

Persistent regulatory gaps

The report blames this slow absorption of graduates on persistent regulatory gaps, particularly the absence of regulation for professions such as landscape architecture, construction project management, interior design, environmental design and diploma-level technicians. Such continues to weaken industry standards and employment outcomes.

“Graduates from these programmes enter the workforce without a clear registration pathway, leaving employers without competency benchmarks and reducing professional accountability,” the report says.

It adds that the absence of regulation also limits the professionalisation of emerging sectors in Kenya. And while diploma holders, including technicians and licentiates, play a vital role in the built environment industry, they remain unregulated.

“This lack of formal recognition causes several challenges, such as limited career advancement, unclear professional paths, and inconsistent competency standards across the workforce,” the report says adding that it also diminishes their visibility in workforce planning and professional representation, making it harder for the sector to fully utilise their skills in project execution, quality control and supervision.

Further, the bachelor’s programmes in Kenya’s built environment sector are said to exhibit significant fragmentation, with multiple titles used across different universities.

“For instance, in town planning disciplines, the existing titles include Bachelor of Arts (B.A) in Planning, Bachelor of Urban and Regional Planning, Bachelor of Urban Planning and B.A in Spatial Planning, some of which are not consistently recognised by the Physical Planners Registration Board (PPRB), such as B.A in Spatial Planning, offered by Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology,” the report says.

AAK says this lack of harmonisation creates confusion for graduates, employers and regulators, complicates professional registration and leads to uneven training standards across the country.

“There is also a noticeable overlap and duplication of programmes across universities, often involving minor rebranding, such as ‘construction management’ versus ‘construction engineering management’,” says AAK in the report.

It states that coordination between universities and professional regulatory bodies, including The Board of Registration of Architects and Quantity Surveyors (Boraqs), Physical Planners Registration Board (PPRB), and Engineers Board of Kenya (EBK), remains weak.

And this disconnect contributes to non-accredited programmes, graduates who cannot register professionally, and low transition rates from university to the workforce.

“This limits career progression, hinders international mobility, and affects the overall quality of the built environment due to a lack of standardised competencies and professional oversight,” it says.