Over 740,000 jobs in Kenya have been lost to Covid-19 pandemic as the number of employed people fell to 17.4 million from 18.1 million at the end of 2020, the Economic Survey report has shown.
Wage employment in the private sector declined by 10.0 percent from 2,063,000 jobs in 2019 to 1,856,000 jobs in 2020. on the other hand, wage employment in the public sector increased from 865,200 in 2019 to 884,600 in 2020.
83 percent of jobs recorded in 2020 were in the informal sector while 2.9 million jobs were in the formal sector.
The nominal wage bill for private and public sectors declined from Ksh2.3 trillion in 2019 to Ksh2.2 trillion in 2020.
Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) revealed that in the first three months of the pandemic, more than 1.7 million Kenyans lost their jobs.
The report released today by Treasury CS Ukur Yatani after a four-month delay shows that the Kenyan economy contracted by 0.3 percent in 2020 from a growth rate of five percent in 2019 because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“In 2021 there are two main factors that affected the production of the report… Covid-19 and late submission of data at some stages. Revision of national accounts was the second reason of late release,” said Yatani.
Accommodation and hospitality industry, education, professional and administrative service activities recorded significant declines in 2020.
Email your news TIPS to Editor@kahawatungu.com or WhatsApp +254707482874. You can also find us on Telegram through www.t.me/kahawatungu
Email your news TIPS to Editor@Kahawatungu.com — this is our only official communication channel
