Highest paying jobs in Kenya found in financial services, energy sector

Financial services and the energy sector are the highest paying jobs in Kenya a study from ICEA Lion has revealed.

Between 2014 and 2018, financial services and energy sector employees were among the highest paid, while agriculture and manufacturing sector employees had the lowest wages.

“The country’s education system has a gap in it that the government is trying to plug now by funding TVET after the they noticed the skills gap in the job market,” Einstein Kihanda, ICEA Lion chief executive said.

He further stated that the growth in jobs in the informal sector has been gravely affected by the law capping interest rates which has seen SMEs starved of funding that they need to grow.

The ICEA report released on Wednesday said 80 percent of all jobs come from the informal sector.

“Despite agriculture, transport real estate and the financial sector being the largest contributors to the GDP, they have the least number of employees,” Judd Murigi-Head of Research at ICEA Lion said.

According to her, the real estate sector forms almost 10 percent of the GDP but in comparison contributes only 0.2 percent to employment.

The report also has it that education, health and public administration have a high employment number relative to their GDP contribution.

It further states that the private sector accounts for approximately 70 percent of all formal employment while the public sector has most of the jobs in education, energy and water sectors.

The number of employees in manufacturing, trade, construction and information and communication are relatively consistent with their contribution to GDP.

“This is something we have noticed with the two sector over the period. Major economic sectors created formal jobs at a faster rate than the economy in 2014 and 2015, all major sectors fell behind the average job growth rate,” Ms. Murigi said.