Unemployment continues to be a major crisis in Kenya with the youth, who comprise 75 per cent of the country’s population being the worst hit. 80% of unemployed Kenyans are below 35 years.

According to a World Bank Report released in March this year, Kenya has the highest rate of youth unemployment in East Africa, which is three times that of its neighboring countries. Read more…

As Kenya continues to be less favourable for investment, things seem to be getting even worse for the privileged working population as companies resort to massive lay off of employees in bids to cut costs. The worst hit industries have been the banking and manufacturing sectors.

The East African Portland Cement Company (EAPCC) has announced that it will be laying off 1,500 employees as part of its turnaround strategy, following the losses the manufacturer has been posting for the last three year. The company’s full year operating losses increased 174 percent to Sh1.58 billion while earnings per share declined 42 percent to Sh46.06 while operating expenses went up by 24.4 per cent.

Last month Family Bank also resorted to layoffs and also called for voluntary early retirement for employees who are on permanent and pensionable terms in an effort to manage costs. Read more…. 

300 staff at Standard Chartered Bank risk losing their jobs following the decision by the bank to migrate its Shared Service Centre operations based in Nairobi to its Global Shared Services Centre in Chennai, India.

Last year Cadbury Kenya announced plans to close down its manufacturing plant in Nairobi and Eveready East Africa which, has been in the country for decades also closed down its Nakuru manufacturing plant sighting competition from cheap imports from the East that evade tax and hence make it difficult to provide a level playing field.

The following companies have also had job cuts that have resulted in dozens of employees losing their source of livelihood Ericsson Kenya- 500 employees, Telkom 500 employees, Karuturi ltd 2,600 workers.

The ease of doing business in Kenya continues to be a challenge for investors as well as influx of cheap imports, which have saturated the market thanks to loopholes in legislation and corruption and its about time the government intervenes to save Kenyans, the economy should be creating more jobs not job cuts.