Top Kenyan Employers Say They Are Not Hiring For Next 3 Months. “What is Your Take?”

By Jane Okoth

Just when you thought job searching was hard, Kenyan employers have made it clear that they won’t be hiring anytime soon.

The sad news is that a job seeker will have to wait for another 3 months or so to get hired if they happen to be lucky.

Worse still, employers are said to be now focusing on “increasing productivity of existent employees” thanks to a recent report released.

This is according to an article on the Daily Nation stating that Job seekers will have to wait longer for employment as top companies say they have no intention of hiring in the next three months despite growing confidence of improved performance.

The article reports that “A survey released by Standard Chartered Bank polling 200 leading companies in manufacturing, services, construction and agriculture, shows that the informal sector could be the only alternative, with government having frozen employment early in the year.”

“Firms were keen on producing much more efficiently and increasing productivity of existing employees,” Standard Chartered regional head of research for Africa Razia Khan said.

The article further says that “The informal sector is estimated to have created 625,000 jobs accounting for 84.3 per cent of all new jobs.”

So what does this mean for Kenyan job seekers and how is it going to affect them?

“I will continue applying for a job even with the so called report,” says Laban Ochieng, a Recent Graduate at a Public University.

“Some job seekers have never been hired for the last 5 years even without this survey so I don’t trust it too much. This is just propaganda and Kenyan job seekers should not take it too seriously,” he concludes.

Lennard Mwangi is of the opinion that Kenyan job seekers need to find other options of employment.

“This is a wakeup call for the youth to look for alternative ways of getting employment other than the formal sector.We need to stop this mentality of white collar jobs because it cannot fit all of us, and besides the informal sector pays too,” he advises.

“This is a big blow especially to the youth and if this is the case then it means that some of us will never get any jobs,” laments Prisca Oyugi also an IT Graduate at a Middle Level College in town.

“It is unfortunate because our parents have spent millions of shillings trying to educate us yet we cannot find any jobs. The government which promised to offer employment opportunities for the youth is now turning its back on us and closing in on employment,” she says.

“The youth unemployment problem has to be tackled once and for all because it is a ticking time bomb,” says Bruce Wachira, a business man based in Nairobi.

“The government should come up with realistic methods of creating jobs for the youth,” he concludes.

As a job seeker, how does this affect your search for employment and have you ever considered joining the informal sector as an alternative?

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