The formal sector last year added 109,300 jobs to take the number of salaried workers past the levels seen before Covid-19, pointing to the continued recovery of sectors such as hospitality and transport.
Official data shows cumulative formal sector jobs grew 3.8 percent to hit 3.02 million, surpassing the 2.93 million jobs the economy sustained in 2019 before Covid-19 disruptions shed 185,800 jobs in 2020.
The formal sector’s pace of creating jobs, however, continued to trail the informal sector, which added 702,900 jobs last year or a 4.6 percent growth to sustain 15.96 million workers, according to the economic data released by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS).
The informal sector jobs had already rebounded past pre-pandemic levels in the previous year as Kenyans who had lost formal jobs turned to short-term jobs for survival.
The growth in formal and informal sector jobs took the cumulative new jobs created last year to 816,600 compared with 924,900 that had been added in the previous year as a recovery to the 736,000 that had been lost in 2020.
The KNBS said the total number of self-employed and unpaid family workers increased by 2.7 percent to 168,100 last year. This took the cumulative jobs in the economy to 19.15 million from 18.33 million.
The pace of job creation, especially in the formal sector, however, continues to trail that of thousands of youth who join the job market every year.
Enrolment to technical and vocational education and training (TVET) and teachers training colleges (TTCs) rose by 60,300 to 580,500, while university enrolment moved from 562,100 to 563,000, increasing the number of job entrants in the coming years.
Firms had in 2020 resorted to layoffs, pay cuts, and unpaid leave policies at the height of the pandemic to stay afloat following reduced economic activities to contain the spread of the pandemic.
Recovery, however, started in 2021, returning the economy to job creation mode.
The private sector created 94,500 jobs last year compared to 125,000 a year before, to take its share of employment in the modern sector to 65.8 percent.
Formal jobs in the hospitality sector, which includes accommodation and food services, rose the fastest (23 percent) from 61,700 to 75,900, highlighting the continued recovery from Covid-19 disruptions that had led to hotel closures as lockdowns kept off visitors.
But the hospitality sector, which shed 31,400 formal jobs in 2020, is yet to return to the pre-pandemic level of 81,20 jobs.
The transportation and storage sectors added formal jobs at the second fastest pace (12 percent) to close the year with 22,400 jobs, above pre-Covid levels.
Most of the jobs were concentrated in the manufacturing and wholesale and retail trade sectors in the private sector, while essential services such as security, healthcare, and education dominate jobs in the public sector.
