Economic Development in Kenya: Unemployment

ECONOMICS
Economic Development
Name
Professor
Course
Date

ECONOMICS
Question one
Unemployment wallows in the minds and families of many people in developing countries. In
Kenya, for instance, idleness is the new norm in society because of the lack of jobs. The
unemployment rate in Kenya stands at 9.31% as indicated in fig 1. Below (Cahn et al 2017
p.89).
Figure 1. The unemployment rate in Kenya
A recent study by the Kenya Economic Survey indicates that nine million people are expected to
enter the labour force between 2015 and 2025. This has pushed the unemployment rate in Kenya
to 9.3%. Even though there has been a significant increase in job creation in the country, most of
these jobs are of low quality (Coccia, 2018 p.65). The considerable high rate of unemployment in
the country has been attributed to the various reason including the high population growth rate,
capacity underutilization, inappropriate education system and lack of co-operant factors.

ECONOMICS
The rapid population growth in the country is generating an increase in labour. Most of the
people often tend to migrate to urban areas in search of employment opportunities which are not
usually readily available (Modlesky et al 2015 p.100). As such, the rate of unemployment in the
country increases. Apart from the rapid population growth in Kenya, inappropriate education
systems have also contributed to the unemployment rate in the country. The previous 8-4-4
system that was recently replaced by the Competency-based-curriculum was not good enough
(Mittelman and Pasha, 2016 p.32). Most of the graduates in the country are unemployed because
of the poor education system and the high population growth rate (Mittermayer et al 2015 p.123).
Question two
Rostow theory
According to this theory, economic growth and development inludes five universal stages.
Schmidt and Tally (2018 p.87) outlines some of these stages such as traditional society, take off,
drive to maturity, age of mass consumption and the pre conditions of take-off. The authors cite
that agricultural economy that is mainly subsistence farming where some of the produce is traded
locally or at times internationally is part of traditional stage. In most cases, the size of capital
stock is limited and of a low quality which often results in relatively low labour productivity.
However, there is usually little surplus left to sell in both domestic and oversea markets (Schmidt
and Tally 2018 p.87).
Pre-conditions take off is a stage where agricultural production becomes more merchandised,
and a high percentage of the produce is traded. A growth in savings and investments often
characterizes this. The Gross domestic product is usually lower, and as such external funding in
terms of remittance income and overseas aid is required.