The Turn to Freelancing and gig work
Across the country, university graduates are increasingly taking whatever work is available as they wait for opportunities related to their qualifications. Some are working in shops, restaurants, call centres and construction sites, while others have turned to online freelancing, delivery services, sales and small businesses.
The jobs may not match what they studied, but they provide something increasingly important — an income.
When survival comes before qualifications
For many graduates, the decision is not about abandoning their professional ambitions. It is about paying rent, buying food, supporting relatives and meeting other daily obligations.
A graduate who spent four years studying communication, commerce, information technology or another professional course are increasingly finding themselves competing for the same entry-level opportunities as thousands of other job seekers which results to a difficult compromise of taking the job that is available now, even if it pays little, while continuing to search for the job you actually trained for.
This has created a generation of educated Kenyans whose CVs tell only part of their story. Behind periods labelled as “unemployment” are often months spent doing temporary work, freelancing, selling products, learning new skills or pursuing opportunities that never became permanent.
The rise of the side hustle
The internet has also changed the way young Kenyans approach employment.
Instead of relying entirely on traditional office jobs, graduates are exploring remote work, virtual assistance, online writing, digital marketing, data-related tasks and other freelance opportunities.
For some, these activities provide a useful bridge between unemployment and formal employment while for others, they have become careers in their own right.
But online work comes with its own challenges because competition is global, income can be unpredictable and workers may spend months building profiles before securing reliable clients.
Still, the willingness to adapt demonstrates something important about Kenya's young workforce, many are no longer waiting passively for a job advertisement.
They are creating multiple income streams wherever possible.
The psychological cost
The financial difficulties are only part of the story.
There is also the pressure of watching classmates appear to progress while one's own career remains uncertain.
Social media can make this pressure worse, with photographs of new cars, offices, weddings, foreign trips and promotions creating the impression that everyone else is moving forward.
For a graduate working a temporary job, such comparisons can be difficult.
Yet survival work should not necessarily be viewed as failure.
A temporary job can pay rent. A sales position can develop communication skills. Freelancing can build a portfolio. Running a small business can teach lessons that no classroom can provide.
The challenge comes when temporary survival becomes permanent because opportunities for advancement remain limited.
A generation refusing to give up
Kenya's graduate employment challenge is ultimately bigger than individual qualifications.
It raises questions about the relationship between education, economic growth and the number of quality jobs available to young people.
But beneath the statistics are individuals continuing to move forward despite uncertainty.
They wake up early, send applications, attend interviews, work temporary shifts, learn new skills and try again the following day.
For this generation, the first job may not be the dream job.
Sometimes it is simply the job that keeps the lights on while the dream is still being pursued.
And perhaps that is the defining characteristic of Kenya's survival-jobs generation that they may be starting wherever they can, but many have not stopped looking for where they want to end up.
Comments (1)