50pc of Kenyans eye new jobs, businesses in 2020

Half of Kenyans will seek new jobs and start businesses in the New Year starting Wednesday amid the gloom of 2019. FILE PHOTO | NMG 

By PATRICK ALUSHULA
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Summary

• Half of Kenyans will seek new jobs and start businesses in the New Year starting tomorrow amid the gloom of 2019 following depressed corporate earnings, stagnant wages and unrelenting layoffs.
• A year-end poll by research firm Tifa found that 33 percent of Kenyans have resolved to start a business in 2020 while another 17 percent want to get a job or seek a new employer.
• This emerges in an environment where firms have put on ice hiring plans and businesses have been hit by cash flow problems.

Half of Kenyans will seek new jobs and start businesses in the New Year starting Wednesday amid the gloom of 2019 following depressed corporate earnings, stagnant wages and unrelenting layoffs.

A year-end poll by research firm Tifa found that 33 percent of Kenyans have resolved to start a business in 2020 while another 17 percent want to get a job or seek a new employer.

This emerges in an environment where firms have put on ice hiring plans and businesses have been hit by cash flow problems.

More than half (52 percent) of Kenyans described 2019 as a bad year when compared with 2018 while 17 percent were lukewarm about it.

While 66 percent felt their economic conditions had worsened in 2019, 59 percent said their employment prospects worsened even as 77 percent decried increased cost of living.

Tifa reckons that the high cost of living and unemployment were consistently ranked as the top problems facing Kenyans in all its national surveys conducted during the year.

“As we come to the end of the year, there are more Kenyans who rate 2019 as worse than 2018 as compared to the same period last year,” Tifa notes in the poll.

Corporate Kenya has witnessed reduced profitability that has ushered in job cuts, freezes in hiring and near stagnant wages in the race to protect profit margins.

The national and county governments have also delayed payments estimated at more than Sh100 billion owed to suppliers, forcing some to cut back operations, shed jobs or face auctioneers after failing to service their bank loans.

As a result, the amount of cash in Kenyans’ pockets has dropped to a four and half-year low with Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) data showing that money circulating outside banks dropped to Sh176.9 billion in October — the lowest since July 2015.

Only 36 percent of Kenyans felt they achieved their goals but those aged 45 years and above performed dismally with only 27 percent saying they hit their goals.

The survey showed the disappointment has left 18 percent of Kenyans without any resolutions for the New Year.

Other popular goals that have been set by Kenyans as they usher in the New Year include 13 percent of the respondents aiming to own a house (13 percent), pursuing higher education (13 percent) and paying school fees for their children (11 percent).

Kenyans in the North Eastern and Western regions were closer to achieving their goals than other regions.

About 52 percent of respondents in North Eastern said they had achieved their goals followed by Western at 46 percent.

The regions with the lowest achievement levels were Coast (26 percent), followed by Rift Valley and Central at 31 percent and 32 percent respectively.

“A refocus on improving economic indicators such as employment and inflation is the sure way reconnecting with citizens who are currently unhappy about their personal financial-health. Everything else is just noise,” said Maggie Ireri, a director at Tifa Research.

The findings are based on telephone interviews with 765 adult respondents living in urban and rural areas.