Hopelessness as only 4pc of unemployed Kenyans actively engage in job search
The report says job search efforts for women, particularly mothers, are significantly hindered by childcare responsibilities thus limiting their active participation in job search.
A majority of unemployed Kenyans are not actively engaging in job search, a situation that paints a stark reality about the country’s unemployment crisis.
This is according to a study report by the state-owned research firm, Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis (KIPPRA), which says only four per cent of unemployed Kenyans are actively seeking employment.
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“The findings indicate that the youth’s engagement in job search is low, which may be attributed to low educational attainment or skills, discouragement from prolonged job searches and underemployment,” the report reads.
“Similarly, job search activity among the unemployed middle-aged group (35-65 years) is also low, potentially due to obsolescence of skills and inadequate interventions to support this age group.”
The report adds that job search efforts for women, particularly mothers, are significantly hindered by childcare responsibilities thus limiting their active participation in job search.
Generally, it says the factors linked to low job search include limited awareness of available jobs and available job search infrastructure, inadequate financial resources required to process applications and structural barriers such as geographic disparities.
Sector choice
Examining the factors influencing sector choice for employment, the research firm says the outcome variables included more than two categories: public sector, private formal sector, private informal sector and small-scale agriculture.
Firstly, it says the probability of working in the private formal and private informal sectors reduces with a unit increase in age by 0.2 per cent and 0.6 per cent, respectively.
In other words, the older a person gets, the less likely they are to be employed in these sectors, with the private informal sector showing a slightly larger reduction in employment probability compared to the private formal sector.
This suggests that older individuals face more challenges or barriers in securing jobs in the private sector.
However, the opposite effect is witnessed in the public sector where the probability of working in the sector increases by 0.1 per cent when age increases by one unit.
Secondly, being male increases the probability that one works in the private formal sector but does not affect employment in private informal and public sectors.
Third, married people have a lower probability of working in the private formal sector while separation is linked to a lower probability of being employed in the private formal and public sectors but is associated with a higher likelihood of working in the private informal sector.
Those living in the urban areas are 2.0 per cent more likely to work in the private formal sector, the report reads.
“However, education qualification level is the most important determinant of the sector of employment.”
An increase in the level of education or training reduces the likelihood of employment in the informal sector and increases the probability of working in the public sector.
Those with only primary education have an 11 per cent likelihood of working in the private formal sector, and a 4.0 per cent chance of working in the informal sector.
Secondary education increases the probability of working in the private formal sector by 13 per cent and the chances of working in the public sector by 4.0 per cent. Vocational training and college education increase the chances of working in the private formal sector by 23 per cent and in the public sector by 14 per cent.
At the same time, vocational training and college education reduce the likelihood of working in the informal sector by 17 per cent.
University education on the other hand also has the same effect as vocational training and college education; it increases the likelihood of working in the formal sector by 31 percent and in the public sector by 19 percent.
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