1,000 Applicants, 1 Opening: A Lack of Formal Employment in Kenya

December 17, 2024

By Todd Abbott | Sinapis Global Administration Manager

In less than two weeks of listing on the Sinapis website, a single job opening in our Nairobi office recently attracted 1,070 applicants.

More than 1,000 of these candidates hold a Bachelor’s degree or higher.

While this may initially seem like a positive sign of interest in the position, it actually highlights a much deeper issue and underscores the urgent gaps of formal employment in Kenya.

Kenya’s job market consists of a wide mix of formal and informal employment opportunities. While the informal sector plays a major role and provides livelihoods for many, it lacks the stability, employee benefits, and legal protections that formal jobs offer.

Receiving 1,000 applications for a single job opening isn’t just a matter of competition; it shows a massive surplus of qualified candidates relative to the number of available positions. The formal job market in Kenya is simply not keeping pace with the growing number of graduates and job seekers entering the workforce each year. Last year, approximately 563,000 students were enrolled in universities across Kenya (Statista), while the entire economy added only 122,000 formal jobs (BDA).

As universities churn out thousands of graduates, the available positions in formal sectors remain severely limited, leading to fierce competition for each role. Kenyans are deeply committed to education and work exceptionally hard (Data Player), but the social contract of "If I educate myself, I'll be able to provide for myself and my family" is clearly broken.

This is why the work of Sinapis in equipping faith-driven entrepreneurs to grow profitable businesses in frontier markets is more critical than ever.

When entrepreneurs grow profitable businesses, they contribute to job creation within their communities. Each new business has the potential to hire employees and add value to their supply chains. This ripple effect multiplies and leads to more stable, formal employment opportunities and lower unemployment.

1,000 job applications for a single opening is a wake-up call to the urgency of the employment situation in Kenya and frontier markets around the world. By addressing the root causes of the imbalance and investing in the entrepreneurs who will change this narrative for good, we can pave the way for a more robust job market that benefits all Kenyans and beyond. Only then can we transform the overwhelming number of applications from a sign of desperation into a beacon of hope for a thriving workforce.

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