The youth unemployment rate in Kenya stood at 11.93 percent in 2024. Between 1991 and 2024, the youth unemployment rate rose by 5.7 percentage points, though the increase followed an uneven trajectory rather than a consistent upward trend.

Actual value and historical data chart for Kenya Unemployment Youth Total Percent Of Total Labor Force Ages 15 24 National Estimate

The unemployment rate among young people in Kenya varied in the fourth quarter of 2022, compared to the previous quarter. In the age group between 20 and 24 years, the rate stood at 15.6 percent, up from 14.2 percent in Q3 2022. Among young people aged 15 to 19 years, the unemployment level dropped to 10.9 percent, after reaching the highest level at 22.7 percent in Q3 2022.

Historical dataset showing Kenya youth unemployment rate by year from 1991 to 2024.

Kenya KE: Unemployment: Modeled ILO Estimate: Youth: % of Total Labour Force Aged 15-24 data was reported at 26.205 % in 2017. This records a decrease from the previous number of 26.251 % for 2016. Kenya KE: Unemployment: Modeled ILO Estimate: Youth: % of Total Labour Force Aged 15-24 data is updated yearly, averaging 21.574 % from Dec 1991 (Median) to 2017, with 27 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 26.251 % in 2016 and a record low of 19.740 % in 1992. Kenya KE: Unemployment: Modeled ILO Estimate: Youth: % of Total Labour Force Aged 15-24 data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Kenya – Table KE.World Bank: Employment and Unemployment. Youth unemployment refers to the share of the labor force ages 15-24 without work but available for and seeking employment.; ; International Labour Organization, ILOSTAT database. Data retrieved in November 2017.; Weighted average; Data up to 2016 are estimates while data from 2017 are projections. National estimates are also available in the WDI database. Caution should be used when comparing ILO estimates with national estimates.

Actual value and historical data chart for Kenya Unemployment Youth Female Percent Of Female Labor Force Ages 15 24 Modeled Ilo Estimate

Kenya KE: Unemployment: Modeled ILO Estimate: Youth Female: % of Female Labour Force Aged 15-24 data was reported at 33.144 % in 2017. This records a decrease from the previous number of 33.148 % for 2016. Kenya KE: Unemployment: Modeled ILO Estimate: Youth Female: % of Female Labour Force Aged 15-24 data is updated yearly, averaging 27.263 % from Dec 1991 (Median) to 2017, with 27 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 33.148 % in 2016 and a record low of 24.392 % in 1997. Kenya KE: Unemployment: Modeled ILO Estimate: Youth Female: % of Female Labour Force Aged 15-24 data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Kenya – Table KE.World Bank: Employment and Unemployment. Youth unemployment refers to the share of the labor force ages 15-24 without work but available for and seeking employment.; ; International Labour Organization, ILOSTAT database. Data retrieved in November 2017.; Weighted average; Data up to 2016 are estimates while data from 2017 are projections. National estimates are also available in the WDI database. Caution should be used when comparing ILO estimates with national estimates.

Unemployment Rate in Kenya decreased to 5.40 percent in 2024 from 5.60 percent in 2023. This dataset provides - Kenya Unemployment Rate - actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news.

In the fourth quarter of 2022, the unemployment rate in Kenya was higher among young people aged 20-24 years. The second most affected group was composed of Kenyans in the age range of 15 to 19 years. Among these, **** percent were unemployed. In the same period, the overall unemployment rate in Kenya was measured at *** percent.

Kenya’s unemployment rate was 5.43 percent in 2024. This represents a steady decline from the increase after the financial crisis. What is unemployment? The unemployment rate of a country refers to the share of people who want to work but cannot find jobs. This includes workers who have lost jobs and are searching for new ones, workers whose jobs ended due to an economic downturn, and workers for whom there are no jobs because the labor supply in their industry is larger than the number of jobs available. Different statistics suggest which factors contribute to the overall unemployment rate. The Kenyan context The first type, so-called “search unemployment”, is hardest to see in the data. The closest proxy is Kenya’s inflation rate. As workers take new jobs faster, employers are forced to increase wages, leading to higher employment. Jobs lost due to economic downturns, called “cyclical unemployment”, can be seen by decreases in the GDP growth rate, which are not significant in Kenya. Finally, “structural unemployment” refers to workers changing the industry, or even economic sector, in which they are working. In Kenya, more and more workers switch to the services sector. This is often a result of urbanization, but any structural shift in the economy’s composition can lead to this unemployment.

Actual value and historical data chart for Kenya Unemployment Youth Male Percent Of Male Labor Force Ages 15 24 Modeled Ilo Estimate

In Kenya, the share of young people aged 15 to 34 years old not in education, employment or training stood at 16.9 percent in the first quarter of 2021. The rate decreased from 18.1 percent in the previous quarter. However, in comparison to the first quarter of 2020, the percentage of young people who were no longer in the education system nor working or receiving professional training slightly grew from 16 percent.

Unemployment, youth female (% of female labor force ages 15-24) (national estimate) in Kenya was reported at 20.87 % in 2022, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. Kenya - Unemployment, youth female (% of female labor force ages 15-24) (national estimate) - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on November of 2025.

Unemployment, youth total (% of total labor force ages 15-24) (modeled ILO estimate) in Kenya was reported at 11.93 % in 2024, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. Kenya - Unemployment, youth total (% of total labor force ages 15-24) - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on November of 2025.

South Africa is expected to register the highest unemployment rate in Africa in 2024, with around ** percent of the country's labor force being unemployed. Djibouti and Eswatini followed, with unemployment reaching roughly ** percent and ** percent, respectively. On the other hand, the lowest unemployment rates in Africa were in Niger and Burundi. The continent’s average stood at roughly ***** percent in the same year. Large shares of youth among the unemployed Due to several educational, socio-demographic, and economic factors, the young population is more likely to face unemployment in most regions of the world. In 2024, the youth unemployment rate in Africa was projected at around ** percent. The situation was particularly critical in certain countries. In 2022, Djibouti recorded a youth unemployment rate of almost ** percent, the highest rate on the continent. South Africa followed, with around ** percent of the young labor force being unemployed. Wide disparities in female unemployment Women are another demographic group often facing high unemployment. In Africa, the female unemployment rate stood at roughly ***** percent in 2023, compared to *** percent among men. The average female unemployment on the continent was not particularly high. However, there were significant disparities among African countries. Djibouti and South Africa topped the ranking once again in 2022, with female unemployment rates of around ** percent and ** percent, respectively. In contrast, Niger, Burundi, and Chad were far below Africa’s average, as only roughly *** percent or lower of the women in the labor force were unemployed.

In 2023, around 20 million people were employed in Kenya, this was an increase of some 900,000 individuals from the previous year. The employees belonged mostly to the informal sector. Roughly 16.7 million worked in informal conditions, whereas close to 3.3 million were employed in the formal sector. The informal sector constitutes an important part of the Kenyan economy, being related to employment creation, production, and income generation. Trends in the informal labor market and economic sectors The largest employment activities for people in the informal sector were in wholesale and retail trade, as well as hotels and restaurants, with 9.32 million people employed in these areas in 2022. Moreover, the hospitality sector in the country was the fastest-growing economic sector with a quarterly growth rate of 21.5 percent of the GDP. However, the largest economic sector as an added value to the GDP was the agricultural sector. Navigating unemployment challenges in Kenya Kenya’s unemployment rate is following a decreasing trend, which dropped below five percent at the end of 2022. However, unemployment among the youth in the same period was fairly high at 13.4 percent. The cohort with the highest level of unemployment was among the age group between 20 to 24 years old, with an unemployment rate of over 15 percent.

Abstract

The 1998/99 Integrated Labour Force Survey (ILFS) was the first of its kind to integrate three related surveys (labour force, informal sector and child labour modular surveys) into a single cost-effective survey. It was conducted over the whole country on the household-based NASSEP III sample frame, and covered 11,049 households giving a response rate of 86.2 per cent. As such, the survey collected a wide range of representative information that can be used in the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of various policies and programmes. In particular, it provides indicators such as school enrolments rates, housing conditions, access to amenities and facilities, income and expenditures, unemployment rates, and income and expenditure levels which should provide invaluable inputs into the monitoring and evaluation of the economic reforms and poverty reduction programmes that are being implemented by the Government.

The key objectives of the survey were to update data on the labour force, determine the size and output of the informal sector, and estimate the extent of child labour. A rich data bank has been created as a by-product of data processing exercise, which can be used to carry out further analysis of the information collected by the survey.

In designing and implementing the survey, CBS worked closely with other stakeholders through the Inter-Ministerial Steering Committee (IMSC) that was formed to provide overall guidance on the implementation of the survey. The committee was composed of representatives from Ministry of Labour and Human Resource Development, Ministry of Education Science and Technology, and the Macro Planning and Human Resources and Social Services departments in the Ministry of Finance and Planning. A Technical Working Group (TWG) was formed as the survey's secretariat that undertook day-to-day activities on the implementation of the survey.

The Surveyed Population

Age-sex Structure The age-sex pyramid of the surveyed population depicts a youthful population, with those aged below 15 years absorbing 42.3 per cent of the population, leading to a dependency ration of 85.3 per cent. The sex ratio was 0.997 for the whole population and 1.06 at birth (age 0-4). The average household size was 4.2 persons (3.3 persons in urban areas and 4.7 persons in rural areas).

Marital status and migration patterns An estimated 42.7 per cent of the population aged over 12 years had never married. Of those ever married, 51.3 per cent were in current marriage, 3.5 per cent widowed and 3.6 per cent separated or divorced. There was evidence of early marriages where 5.0 percent of the population aged 13-17 reported they were currently married.

Education and Literacy There were 3.6 million children in primary and 0.9 million children in secondary schools, giving gross enrolment ratios of 89.1 percent and 30.7 percent respectively. Student sex ratio, or ratio of males for females, in primary schools was 1.08, while that for secondary schools was 1.20. About 16.4 percent of the Kenyan population aged over 5 years and over reported to have had no formal education at all. Those with primary education constituted 59.0 per cent of the referenced population while 19.7 percent had attained secondary education. Only 1.1 per cent had attained university education.

Housing and amenities About 31.0 per cent of the households had a permanent dwelling unit. Majority of the rural households reported that they owned both the dwelling units they lived in and the land on which it was built, while almost all the urban residents lived in rented dwelling units. About 12.5 per cent of households, mainly in the rural areas, reported they had no toilet facilities. The commonest type of waste disposal was pit latrine, but flush toilet was prevalent in urban areas. Most of the rural households travelled long distances to fetch water, while 80.4 percent of the urban households had water within 50 meters. Firewood was the commonest type of cooking fuel in rural areas, while paraffin (53.3 per cent) and charcoal (22.6 per cent) were the main types of cooking fuels in urban areas. About 77.2 per cent of responding households were using paraffin to light their houses, with 90.5 per cent in rural areas. Urban areas mainly relied on paraffin (50.7 per cent) and electricity (41.8 per cent) as the chief sources of lighting.

Migration Patterns The overall out-migration rate was 13.2 percent, with rural areas losing a large portion of its population to urban areas. Among the eight provinces, Nairobi, Western and Central experienced significant out-migration of over 15.0 percent. Overall, urban areas were net gainers in population flows within the country.

Household expenditure Overall mean monthly expenditure per household amounted to Kshs 6,343. Monthly mean expenditures for rural households were estimated at Kshs 4,101, while the urban equivalent was Kshs 10,826. There were expenditure differentials between male- and female-headed households, where mean monthly expenditures for female-headed households in rural areas was Kshs 2,986, quite below he monthly expenditure of Kshs 4,620 for male-headed households. Similarly, mean expenditure for male-headed households in urban areas was almost twice that of female-headed households.

The Labour Force Participation

Economic activity The results show that there were 15.9 million persons aged 15-64 (the working population) of which 77.4 per cent reported to be economically active. Most of the active population was youth between 24-34 years of age. About 14.6 percent of the economically active were unemployed. Some 3.6 million persons reported to be economically inactive, representing 22.6 per cent of the population aged 15-64 years. Majority of the inactive population was full time students (47.3 per cent). Only 2.0 per cent of the inactive population reported they were out of the labour force because they were retired.

Participation Rates The overall labour force participation rate for the population aged 15 - 64 years stood at 73.6 per cent. Urban areas had higher labour force participation rate of 86.4 per cent compared to rural areas with a rate of 73.8 per cent. Males had a slightly higher participation rate of 74.7 per cent compared to that of females at 72.6 per cent. The results show that participation rates increase along the age spectrum to about 95.2 for the age group 40 - 44 before levelling to 80. 1 per cent for the age cohort 60 - 64. Also, participation rates tend to rise with the level of formal education, rising from 83.7 per cent for those with no education to over 98.8 per cent for those who have completed post-graduate education.

Employment The number of employed persons aged 15-64 years stood at 10.5 million persons, giving employment rate of 85.4 per cent. The overall employment sex ratio was 1.08, but females dominated rural based small-scale farming and pastoralist activities, with a sex ratio of 0.67. Rural area absorbed 70.1 per cent of the employed persons. The working population was largely made up of unpaid family workers (39.6 per cent), mostly working in the rural areas and paid employees, largely concentrated in urban areas (33.4 per cent). Self-employed persons constituted 23.8 per cent of the employed. Of the three sectors of the economy, small-scale farming and pastoralist activities engaged 42.1 per cent of workers. Informal sector and formal or modern sector absorbed 31.6 per cent and 26.3 per cent of the total workforce.

Occupations and industry Most of the employed persons reported to be skilled agricultural and fishery workers (37.3 per cent), largely self-employed based in rural areas. Professionals were mainly in paid employment, and accounted for only 1.2 per cent of the employed persons. The agricultural activities absorbed 63.1 per cent of the employed persons. The other major employers were the service industries with community, social and personal services accounting for 6.1 per cent of the employed. The least popular industries were private households with employed persons, and electricity and water supply. The number of females employed in activities traditionally dominated by males such as construction, mining and quarrying was notably low. However, females were concentrated in agricultural activities, trades, and educational services.

Hours of work Most workers reported 40 working hours per week with a significant proportion of the urban population working above the average hours. Urban workers generally reported to have worked for longer hours than workers in rural areas. Gender analysis shows that females worked for fewer hours than males, particularly in the rural areas. However, females who worked in urban areas (in private households as housemaids) were working quite above 40 hours in a week.

Wage levels Average earnings amounted to KShs 7,766 per month, with the main source of employee's remuneration being basic salary, which formed 81.3 per cent of the overall earnings per person. Earnings in urban were almost double the average earnings in rural areas. There were significant disparities in earnings by gender as females were earnings wages quite below their male counter parts in both rural and urban areas.

Unemployment There were 1.8 million unemployed persons aged 15-64 years, giving an overall unemployment rate of 14.6 per cent. The urban unemployment rate had risen from -- per cent in 1989 to 25.1 per cent by 1999. Like wise, unemployment in the rural areas was high at 9.4 per cent, but less acute then in urban areas. Most of the unemployed were youth and females. Most of the unemployed persons (94.2 per cent) were looking for paid employment during the one-week reference period. It is also worth noting the shift from subsistence farming, as more jobs searchers were ready to start self-employment (mainly found in mostly in the expanding informal sector) than farming activities

In 2023, South Africa had the highest unemployment rate in the world, at 32.1 percent. Of the 10 countries with the highest unemployment rates, six were in Sub-Saharan Africa. What exactly is unemployment? The unemployment rate is the number of people in the workforce currently looking for jobs but not working. This number does not include students and retirees, as they are not looking for work, nor does it include people who have given up on finding a job (known as discouraged workers). Comparing international unemployment rates can be problematic, however, as different countries use different methodologies when classifying unemployment. For example, Niger records the third lowest unemployment rate in the world, despite often being listed as the least developed country worldwide - this is because the majority of the population engage in subsistence farming, with very little opportunity for paid employment. Causes of unemployment in less developed countries A major driver in unemployment in these countries is conflict. In particular, internally displaced persons (IDPs) want to work, but moving to another part of the country disrupts their business network and moves them into a local economy with different labor demand. Countries with low levels of economic development, as roughly indicated by a low GDP per capita, often have fewer labor market opportunities, leading to high unemployment rates.

KE：失业：模拟国际劳工组织（ILO）估算：年轻人：占15-24岁劳动力总人数百分比在12-01-2017达26.205%，相较于12-01-2016的26.251%有所下降。KE：失业：模拟国际劳工组织（ILO）估算：年轻人：占15-24岁劳动力总人数百分比数据按年更新，12-01-1991至12-01-2017期间平均值为21.574%，共27份观测结果。该数据的历史最高值出现于12-01-2016，达26.251%，而历史最低值则出现于12-01-1992，为19.740%。CEIC提供的KE：失业：模拟国际劳工组织（ILO）估算：年轻人：占15-24岁劳动力总人数百分比数据处于定期更新的状态，数据来源于World Bank，数据归类于Global Database的肯尼亚 – 表 KE.世界银行：就业和失业。