Kenya’s economy defied a volatile operating environment both locally and globally to create 782,300 new jobs in 2024, with most of the employment growth coming from the informal sector.
The year was marred by a series of geopolitical tensions, with the Israel-Palestine crisis leading to disruption of the global supply chain at the Red Sea, a move that pushed up the cost of doing business.
The Russia-Ukraine crisis hit the global economy hard, with the National Institute Global Econometric Model (NiGEM) indicating that the war cost the world an equivalent of 1 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), estimated at about $1.5 trillion valued at purchasing power parity exchange rates (PPP).
Locally, the economy suffered heavily from protests against the Finance Bill, 2024 and extreme weather events, especially floods.
The Kenya Economic Survey, 2025, released by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) on Tuesday, shows that employment in both the modern and informal sectors, excluding small-scale agriculture, increased from 20 million in 2023 to 20.8 million in 2024.
The creation of jobs during the year under review was, however, slower compared to 2023, where a total of 848,000 new jobs were created.
Out of the new jobs created, the informal sector contributed the largest share with 703,700 jobs, representing 90 per cent of the total. However, this was a slight drop compared to 720,900 new jobs created in the sector in 2023.
The modern sector added 78,600 jobs in 2024, marking a 2.4 per cent increase in employment.
Wage employment in the private sector grew by 2.1 per cent in 2024, down from 3.3 per cent in 2023.
“The leading industries in the private sector in 2024 providing the highest employment numbers were Manufacturing and Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing, accounting for 15.9 per cent and 14.1 per cent, respectively,” the survey reads.
According to the report, the manufacturers created 347,294 new jobs,
followed by agriculture at 308,865, trade at 276,127, education at 242,536, while
construction created 223,383 jobs.
In the public sector, wage employment rose by 3.1 per cent, a slower pace compared to the 5.9 per cent growth recorded in 2023.
Education remained the biggest employer, accounting for 45.2 per cent of all public jobs, followed by Public Administration and Defense and Compulsory Social Security, which made up 34.4 per cent.
The country’s total wage bill increased by 7.2 per cent to Sh2.99 trillion in 2024.
The private sector accounted for the largest portion at Sh2.12 trillion — a 7.7 per cent growth — while the public sector wage bill rose by 5.8 per cent to Sh881.4 billion, making up 29.4 per cent of the total.
Average annual earnings also went up, from Sh894,200 in 2023 to Sh933,100 in 2024.
However, when adjusted for inflation, real average annual earnings slightly dropped to Sh665,400 in 2024, down from Sh667,300 the previous year.
Despite the creation of new employment, many more people in the country were also rendered jobless during the year under review as firms took a hit from slower growth in economic activities.
According to the Federation of Kenyan Employers (FKE), since 2022, close to 6,000 people have lost their jobs, with at least 57 companies announcing redundancies.
"In 2024, we had 202 companies declaring redundancies. In 2023, we had 11, and in 2022, the remaining. Out of this, from our membership, some 5,567 were affected. This is just an indication because these are just the numbers we get from our members. There are lots of other companies declaring redundancies,” said FKE CEO Jacqueline Mugo, who told journalists early this year.
