Kenya: Percentage of People Employed in Agriculture, Services and Industry

This article explores employment in key sectors of the Kenyan economy, including agriculture, services, and industry. 

Until recently, the agricultural sector had the largest share of total employees in the labor force. Today, a majority of Kenyan employees are in the services sector.  

Quick Facts

1. Employment in the services sector accounted for 52.2% of total employment in 2023. 
2. Employment in industry accounted for 15.6% of total employment in 2023. 
3. Employment in agriculture accounted for 32.3% of total employment in 2023. 

Employment in agriculture, industry, and services

The chart below shows the trend in employment in key sectors of the Kenyan economy.

As of 2023, employment in services accounted for the largest number of employees as a share of total employment at 52.2%.^[1]

Employment in agriculture was the second largest at 32.2%, while employment in industry was third at 15.6%.

The chart shows that a lot has changed since 1991, when agriculture accounted for the largest proportion of employees at 47.1%, before dropping to 32.3% in 2023.

We also see that services accounted for 39% of all employees in 1991 before rapidly rising and overtaking agriculture to reach 52.2% in 2023.

Employment in industry grew more slowly than services, starting at 13.9% of all employees in 1991 and reaching 15.6% in 2023.

The percentage of women employed in agriculture declined significantly between 1991 and 2023.

The chart above shows that the percentage of people employed in agriculture has declined, mainly because fewer people are entering that sector today than in the past.  

In the chart below, we see that this change was mainly driven by women. The proportion of women employed in agriculture dropped by 16 percentage points from 48.4% in 1991 to 32.3%. 

In the same period, the proportion of men employed in agriculture declined by eight percentage points from 38.6% to 30.5%.

Today, the percentage of men and women employed in agriculture is almost equal, unlike in 1991, when women were predominantly employed in the sector.

Services used to employ more men, but now women form a larger share of its workforce.

You may wonder why women left agriculture in droves and where they went. The answer lies in the services sector.

From the chart below, we see that men used to be the majority employed in services. In 1991, men comprised 42.7% of the service employees, and women comprised 33.1%.

However, starting in 2011, this changed, and more women are now employed in services than men. As of 2023, women were 55.6% of service employees, while men were 49.3%.

The percentage of women employed in services grew by 22.5% between 1991 and 2023, while that of men grew more slowly by 6.6%.

Industry employment grew more slowly compared to services

In 1991, the percentage of men employed in industry as a share of the total was 18.7%, while that of women was 8.2%.

In 2023, the percentage of men employed in industry had risen slightly to 20.2%, while that of women reached 10.2%.

The chart above shows that the gap between men and women employed in industry has remained largely the same.

Overall, the slow growth in industry employment can be attributed to fewer industry jobs than services and agriculture. The industry saw little growth even as services expanded. 

See Also

1. Agriculture GDP by County
2. Services GDP by County
3. Manufacturing GDP by County
4. Kenya's Gross National Income
5. Gross Domestic Product – Kenya
6. Gross County Product – County GDP

Reference