Report on Youth Unemployment, Under-Employment and Decent Work in Kenya

Abstract

This study presents the profile of youth unemployment and underemployment for Kenya, with findings on job quality, the size and dimensions of open unemployment and underemployment, and the role of education in reducing inequalities in labor markets. The analysis conducted is based on nationally representative data sets from the Kenya Integrated Household Budget Survey of 2006 and the 2009 national population census. Kenya has a very youthful population with those aged under 15 constituting about 43% of the population. The share of population aged 15 to 34 -the youth is 35.3%, implying that Kenya’s total population of nearly 40 million individuals is dominated by young persons under the age of 35 years. The persons aged 35 years and over constitute 22% of the total popular distribution being repeated - more or less - across all the administrativejinces to about 23% in Northeastern province. About 7% of the youth amounting to 1 million individuals were openly unemployed in 2009. Remarkably, the unemployment rates do not vary much even when those individuals who are not searching for jobs are considered as unemployed.