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Growing number of youth likely to leave Kenya if given a chance
The Kenyan economy added the fewest jobs since the 2020 Covid pandemic as growth slowed, dealing a blow to the William Ruto administration to ease the mounting youth unemployment.
About seven out of 10 Kenyan youths want to leave the country for higher education and escape the soft economy that has failed to deliver jobs for thousands of graduates.
A new survey of more than 5,000 young people in Africa aged 18-24 revealed that 76 percent of Kenyan youths were considering emigrating in the next few years, due to economic hardship and in pursuit of education opportunities.
Kenya’s economy has struggled to create quality jobs amid the surge in graduates leaving colleges and universities annually, creating a mounting pool of unemployed youths.
“Rapid growth of the labour force coupled with sluggish growth of employment, creates the trigger for the youth migration,” said the African Youth Survey 2024-- conducted by the Ichikowitz Family Foundation biannually.
The foundation focuses on issues affecting African youths, such as Afro-optimism, international influence on Africa and Africa’s role on the global stage.
It also looks at democracy, corruption and future ambitions through the lens of the youth.
The high unemployment rate, poor quality education and limited, to no job opportunities have led to frustrated youth seeking movement abroad, says the foundation.
The Kenyan economy added the fewest jobs since the 2020 Covid pandemic as growth slowed, dealing a blow to the William Ruto administration to ease the mounting youth unemployment.
About 782,300 new jobs were created last year, down from 848,100 new hires a year earlier, data released by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics yesterday showed.
This emerged in a year when the economy also expanded at the slowest pace since the Covid pandemic period at 4.7 percent compared to 5.7 percent a year earlier, due to costly credit, floods that destroyed farms, and disruptions following the deadly protests against the Finance Bill.
Ninety percent of jobs created in the year were from the informal sector, mirroring difficulties of corporate Kenya in creating quality employment for thousands of graduates.
The economy created 75,000 formal jobs last year compared to 122,900—another low since Covid-19 economic hardships when 185, 800 jobs were lost in 2020.
About 81 percent of Kenya’s youth were unsatisfied with the direction of the economy.
“If Africa cannot provide this generation with the lives they aspire to, they will have no compunction seeking a better life elsewhere in the countries already groaning under the weight of mass immigration and the toxic rise of local identity politics in response,” notes Ivor Ichikowitz, Chairman of the Ichikowitz Family Foundation.
