Factors Affecting Employment in Kenya
FACTORS AFFECTING EMPLOYMENT IN KENYA.
Creating opportunities in terms of employment is of critical concern to every country in the world. While the developed countries have some strategies to cushion the citizen against unemployment, the developing and under developed countries are still struggling with the impact of unemployment. There are a number of factors that have continued to affect employment in Kenya. These factors are traced from colonial era and continue to have influence even today. The major factors discussed in this paper include:economic factor, political factor, migration factor, organizational factor and demographic factors (gender and ethnicity factor).
Economic Factor
Kenya 's economy is market-based, with some state-owned infrastructure enterprises, and maintains a liberalized external trade system. The economy 's healvy dependence on rain-fed agriculture and the tourism sector leaves it vulnerable to cycles of boom and bust. The agricultural sector employs nearly 75 percent of the country 's 38 million people. Half of the sector 's output remains subsistence production.
The economic state in Kenya has also been noted to be a contributor towards employments and workers ' progress. In the early 2000s, agriculture remains the population 's main occupation and source of income. In 2006 Kenya 's labor force was estimated to include about 12 million workers, almost 75 percent in agriculture. The number employed outside small-scale agriculture and pastoralism was about 6 million. In 2004 about 15 percent of the labor force was officially classified as unemployed. Other estimates place Kenya 's unemployment much higher, even up to 40 percent.
Political Factor
Political influence has had an arguably considerable effect on employments and employment arenas in Kenya. For example, in the colonial era, the new administrators had to be distributed to all regions of the new colony so as to establish effective administration of the natives. This
Creating opportunities in terms of employment is of critical concern to every country in the world. While the developed countries have some strategies to cushion the citizen against unemployment, the developing and under developed countries are still struggling with the impact of unemployment. There are a number of factors that have continued to affect employment in Kenya. These factors are traced from colonial era and continue to have influence even today. The major factors discussed in this paper include:economic factor, political factor, migration factor, organizational factor and demographic factors (gender and ethnicity factor).
Economic Factor
Kenya 's economy is market-based, with some state-owned infrastructure enterprises, and maintains a liberalized external trade system. The economy 's healvy dependence on rain-fed agriculture and the tourism sector leaves it vulnerable to cycles of boom and bust. The agricultural sector employs nearly 75 percent of the country 's 38 million people. Half of the sector 's output remains subsistence production.
The economic state in Kenya has also been noted to be a contributor towards employments and workers ' progress. In the early 2000s, agriculture remains the population 's main occupation and source of income. In 2006 Kenya 's labor force was estimated to include about 12 million workers, almost 75 percent in agriculture. The number employed outside small-scale agriculture and pastoralism was about 6 million. In 2004 about 15 percent of the labor force was officially classified as unemployed. Other estimates place Kenya 's unemployment much higher, even up to 40 percent.
Political Factor
Political influence has had an arguably considerable effect on employments and employment arenas in Kenya. For example, in the colonial era, the new administrators had to be distributed to all regions of the new colony so as to establish effective administration of the natives. This
References: Employment Relations Record (2004). Employment relationship and politicisation: Views of Malaysian civil servants working in Penang. GoK (2002). The 1998/99 integrated labour force survey report, Ministry of Planning and National Development, Nairobi. Government Press. Odhiambo, O. (2006). Enhancing the Productive Capacity of Rural Youth in Agriculture, Environment and Natural Resource Management towards Employment Creation in Kenya: Experiences from Kenya Rural Youth Livelihood Strategies Programme (KERYLIP) Pilot Project in Nyando District-Nyanza Province of Kenya. Nairobi: Youth Employment Summit-Nairobi (YES). World Bank (1982). "Kenya- Economic Development and Urbanization Policy," Vol. II. Main Report, Washington D.C.