The 2017 economic survey indicates that 90% of jobs created last year were from the informal sector. This is a result of a failure of Jubilee government to create jobs as it earlier promised.
A report launched on Wednesday showed that the informal sector generated 747,300 jobs with the formal sector creating 85,600 jobs.
There was a marginal drop of 1.03% compared to drop of jobs in 2015 with more than 10,000 jobs lost through layoffs as reported.
“The economy has however remained resilient and the growth has been achieved by the initiatives the government has put in place, easing the cost of doing business,” said Devolution and Planning CS Mwangi Kiunjuri.
The new jobs created stood at 799,700 in 2014 and 742,000 in 2013 as per the government’s data.
In 2016, however, new jobs pushed up to 19.92 million from 15.16 million in 2015.
There was also an increase in total earnings in public and private sector to shs.1.647 trillion in 2016 from Sh.1.509 trillion in 2015 which is equivalent to a 9% growth.
Total international arrivals increased to 1.34 million in 2016 from 1.18 million in the previous year. Tourism sector increased earnings to Sh.99.7 billion compared to Sh. 84.6 billion.
“The economy experienced a relatively conducive macroeconomic environment. However, the growth was somewhat hampered by drought and a considerable slowdown in the uptake of credit in the fourth quarter of 2016,” said KNBS director general Zachary Mwangi.
He was speaking during the official launch of the report in Nairobi.
Despite a ravaging drought and squeeze in credit to the private sector as a result of capping of interest rates, the KNBS report indicates that economy grew by 5.8 percent last year compared to 5.7 in 2015.
