JAMILA'S MEMO: Face of Unemployment

The thousands of men and women had come from different parts of the country, some as far as Bungoma, Nyeri, Meru and Kakamega.

For many of them, this was not their first attempt, a clear indicator of the unemployment crisis in the country. Many were turned away for failing to meet the requirements.

It must have been difficult for the recruiters to turn away so many people; they needed to be very specific. Thousands left disappointed but for those picked, it was a huge relief, a job, finally.

In August this year, thousands of people including university graduates showed up in hopes of securing the 3000 cleaning jobs advertised by the Nairobi County Government.

One of them had a bachelor's degree in Geospatial Information Science but was willing to leave that piece of paper and what it represented behind and clean the city, at least he would have a job.

The scenes witnessed that day in August and this past Monday paint a picture of the sad state of affairs regarding the unemployment crisis in the country, which remains an everyday reality.

We all know someone who has been looking for a job a close relative, a friend, a former colleague, or an acquaintance who despite being qualified is unable to find employment. Unasikia some of these jobs ni lazima ujue mtu ndio upate? And this is indeed very true in this country.

I recently came back from a trip in the US. There many companies of different sizes and industry across various states face challenges trying to find enough workers to fill open jobs; yaani kazi ni nyingi kushinda wanaotafuta kazi. The latest data as at September 2023 shows that there are 9.8 million job openings in the US, but only 5.9 million unemployed workers. 

Folks if every unemployed person in the US found a job, they would still have around 4 million open jobs. Wow, just wow. And guess what? The US government keep creating new jobs. For instance in August 2023, 187,000 jobs were created. This month's numbers should be coming soon too.

What about our own data? While looking for information about our latest unemployment numbers from the Ministry Of Labour, we were directed to the Kenya National Bureau Of Statistics. There was data there, but up to quarter 4 last year, that is December 2022 at the time the unemployment rate was 4.9%

It's usually measured as people who had not been working for up to 4 weeks by December 2022 since then there is nothing else. I wonder how many 4 weeks we have had since then? Just a reminder, we are in the 4th quarter of this year, but I digress.

I wonder how you can solve what you can’t measure. If there is no information how many jobs we have, how many people are unemployed, which sectors employ the most people, etc.Then how will we know where our challenges are?

As I wonder about the thousands who queued for the few jobs, it seems maybe our problem starts at the Ministry of labour, I mean there is no recent information about what we have and what we need. With the latest report of the controller of budget showing how government spending is, i wonder again how much it would cost to have updated unemployment numbers. 

According to KMPDU, 4705 qualified doctors, dentists and pharmacists are unemployed as of September 2023. Maybe the ministry should go to each union and get the data. At least we would have some updated information.

The unemployment crisis is with us, and continues to affect millions in this country...we need solutions, fast. At least let us find out exactly how many people have no jobs and then start filling those gaps.