The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) revealed that youths between the ages of 20 to 24 are the worst hit by unemployment in Kenya at a figure of 241,728 during the period between January to May this year.
This was followed by youths aged 25 to 29 making up 228,466 of the total. This comes as a confirmation that the Kenyan youth are indeed the most affected by the unemployment crisis, compared to those who are 35 years and older.
“Youth aged between 20-24 had the highest proportion of the unemployed at 12.5 percent. On the other hand, those aged 55-59 had the least unemployment rate of 0.3 percent,” the report said.
In the last quarter, the number of employed Kenyans dropped by 1.7 percent to 17.8 million from 18.1 million in the quarter ended December 2019.
“The relaxed unemployment rate for the first quarter 2020 was 13.7 percent showing a deterioration from the 12.4 percent recorded in the fourth quarter of 2019,” read the KNBS report.
The report has come at a time when the unemployment rate owing to the COVID-19 pandemic is already causing a crisis in the country.
The ministry of Health recently announced that an estimated 300,000 Kenyans had lost their jobs since the outbreak of the corona virus in the country on March 12th 2020.
In early May, President Uhuru Kenyatta warned that about half a million jobs would be lost in the next six months should the Coronavirus infections continue.
Many businesses continue to lay off staff as the economy takes a downward spiral and the infections rates continue to rise.
Companies including Mediamax have recently laid off their staff while a host of others like Fairmont and Sentrim lodges have closed shop all together.
So far, Kenya has 1,962 cases of the corona virus and 64 deaths with 474 recoveries.
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