Kenya Job Creation at 8-Month Low

Kenyan firms lost their job creation momentum in July as subdued manufacturing output and shrinking sale orders took their toll, a new survey shows, KNA reported. Labor-intensive manufacturing accounts for between nine and 11% of Kenya’s annual gross domestic product. The latest Markit Stanbic Bank Kenya Purchasing Managers’ Index shows private sector output was slowest in last eight months as orders dropped to levels last seen in January. Overall, the PMI fell from 55.0 in June to 53.6 in July as firms hired “at slower and marginal pace in July as they faced the fastest rise in overall input costs since March”. The PMI readings above 50.0 signal an improvement in business conditions on the previous month, while readings below 50.0 show a deterioration.

“The health of the private sector remains sound and the decline in the PMI in July is still above the historical average since data collection began,” said Jibran Qureishi, Stanbic Bank’s regional economist for East Africa, downplaying rising input costs as a regular July phenomenon.