By GEOFFREY IRUNGU
In Summary
- Number of workers rises by 61.9 per cent, thanks to increased activity in the construction sector.
The construction sector generated new jobs at
the fastest pace in the five-year period to 2012, reflecting high
potential of the industry to boost employment.
According to the Economic Survey 2013, the number
of jobs generated by construction activities grew by nearly 62 per cent
between 2007 and 2012, well ahead of other economic sectors.
The number of people who worked in the
construction industry stood at 99,100 last year, having risen by 61.9
per cent since 2007, the survey showed. This happened even as the
average monthly wage remained low at Sh34,782, putting remuneration in
the sector in the bottom half of all economic classes.
While private sector construction (including real
estate) saw the huge increase in wage employment during the period, the
public sector experienced a decline by 6.5 per cent in the creation of
employment.
However, the wages for the activities in the
public sector are small, at just a fifth of those in the private sector.
The construction sector has been buoyant in the past five years, thanks to robust construction of roads, high demand for homes and office space—which in turn has spurred frenetic activity in the construction business.
The construction sector has been buoyant in the past five years, thanks to robust construction of roads, high demand for homes and office space—which in turn has spurred frenetic activity in the construction business.
Data provided by property index and management
firm HassConsult show that the average value for a property in Nairobi,
for example, had more than doubled since 2007 to Sh24 million as at
December 2012. In the year 2000 the average prices of Nairobi properties
was only Sh7 million, according to HassConsult.
Construction activities (including real estate)
has also tended to be among those consuming bank credit at the fastest
rate in the past few years. In December 2012, construction (and real
estate) held Sh246 billion —nearly a fifth—out of the total of Sh1.33
trillion in loans from commercial banks.
The boom in the construction sector has also seen
the related area of quarrying being among those whose employee earnings
has risen the fastest in the past five years.
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In the five-year period between 2007 and 2012, the
quarrying activities – as combined with mining – saw average employee
earnings rise by 33.4 per cent although its employee numbers remain
small at only 8,400 last year.
The worth of production in construction activities
increased by 3.9 per cent in constant prices in 2012 from the previous
year. In the last five years, the sector has grown by an average of 3.9
per cent every year in real terms even when the average for the economy
was slightly below at 3.8 per cent.
In 2012 relative to the previous year, the growth
in employment in the sector was 11 per cent, the largest for any sector
in a single year. In 2012, the closest to the construction sector in
employment terms within the private sector was ICT whose numbers grew
by 7.0 per cent.
Shortly before his exit in March, former President
Mwai Kibaki said the ICT sector was in a position to create up to
200,000 formal sector jobs in the coming years, with the setting up of the Konza Technology City.
ICT was also the second largest in terms of
generating jobs in the past five years with 37.1 per cent increase. This
has been made possible by the growth of the telecommunication services
providers such as Safaricom, Airtel, Orange, yuKenya and AccessKenya.
The third largest provider of new jobs in the
private sector in the past five years has been human health and social
work, which created 35 per cent more jobs over the period. This would
include jobs for doctors and nurses.
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