Kenya has the lowest employment rate in the East African region according to a recent UN report by the 2017 Human Development Index (HDI).

According to the report by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), nearly four in every 10 Kenyans of working age have no jobs.

The east African economic giant trails her counterparts with  39.1 percent of the Kenyan population of working age being unemployed compared to Tanzania’s 24 per cent, Ethiopia’s 21.6 percent, Uganda’s 18.1 per cent and Rwanda’s 17.1 per cent.

“While Kenya has shown progress in promotion of human development — in improving access to education, health, and sanitation, with more people rising out of extreme poverty — several groups remain disadvantaged,”

The Human Development Report 2016 ’Human Development for Everyone’ looks at a country’s socio-economic wellbeing based on three parameters — a long and healthy life, education and standards of living.
It also explores what societies should do to advance human development for everyone and sets forward policy recommendations at the national level and ways in which the global development landscape could be made more effective in the fight to leave no one behind and achieve the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Unemployment in Kenya, which now stands at 40% according to the latest statistics, has been one of the greatest challenges in the country with 80% of unemployed Kenyans being below 35 years old.