There are more than 740 thousand Kenyans who have lost their jobs this year due to the pandemic or, rather, due to the economic crisis triggered by the consequent restrictions.
This was revealed in a study on the economic situation of the country released by the Kenyan Treasury Minister Ukur Yatani.
According to the report, the number of employed people has dropped below 18 million (17.4 million).
The gap is mainly in the private sector, while public sector employment is bucking the trend and increasing slightly. This is also due to the government's need to deploy forces to cope with the special period. For example, time employees of the "kazi mtaani" project set up by President Kenyatta to provide a monthly wage to 1.5 million young people during the lockdown are still working. The unemployed young people have been involved in socially useful work that mainly concerns the ordinary maintenance of urban centers.
The report however sheds light on disturbing numbers: for example, the informal sector, which employs most Kenyans, has seen employment opportunities shrink to 2.9 million.
Total employment outside of agriculture and livestock activities, contracted by 4.1 percent.
Overall, the country's economy contracted by 0.3% in 2020 compared to 5% growth in 2019.
In contrast, the crisis does not appear to have affected the construction sector. The construction sphere grew 11.8 percent compared to 5.6 percent growth in 2019 as cement consumption increased.
Tourism (as we previously wrote), transportation and manufacturing were negatively impacted primarily due to the effects of the pandemic.
Earnings from tourism declined by 43.9 percent to Ksh91.7 billion, while in the transportation and warehousing sector, the volume of commercial goods traffic handled declined by 8.9 percent.