Where did all the jobs go?

BY XN IRAKI

KENYA: To the younger generation, this may sound like fiction. I got my first job offer when I was in Form Two. I refused to take it and passed it over to a classmate who left school and joined a leading sugar making firm. Several of my classmates left school for the world of work. That was Kenya’s golden age, when there were many choices. It was not a long time ago, as I was born long after the Union Jack came down.

So where did all the jobs go?

One simple explanation is that population has gone up, while the number of jobs created has gone down. Interestingly, it’s easier to create a job seeker than to create a job. Few can doubt that our population growth is among the highest in the world, almost 3 per cent per annum. In Japan, the population is going down.

Some could argue convincingly that population is not really the cause of joblessness because the leading economies of the world happen to have high populations from Japan to the US, India and China; it’s the population growth rate which does not give economy time to create economic opportunities.

The other real cause of joblessness is that the economy has not grown fast enough, because we are not innovative enough. For 50 years, our economy has not spawned any major innovation like the Internet, or the computer. We are still traditional, thinking about land, freely given by nature. We register few patents that are converted into business empires like Google or Apple Inc.  Interestingly, the reason we got jobs in high school is because we had technical skills that were demanded by the market.Nowadays, we have Sakata and Tusker Project Fame where young men and women try their luck to become super stars. Why don’t we have Sakata and Tusker Project Fame based on science and technology?

Shadow of fear

Our education system is another culprit. Despite attempts to make our education relevant, through changes to 8-4-4, we have avoided making it the great conveyor of social and economic progress. We have not built great institutions like MIT, Caltech or India Institute of Technology that not only spawn graduates of science and technology, but build great entrepreneurs that create lots of jobs. Which of the great companies in the world today is not science based? The other cause is that despite liberalisation, our economy is still traditional, we still believe more in punishment than in incentives. Psychologists will tell you that we react better to incentives than punishment, a fact Adam Smith realised 200 years ago. Our leaders make us live in the shadow of fear, no wonder we are rarely innovative.

The only reason the private sector is more efficient and creates more jobs than the public sector is because of incentives, whether in profit or recognition. In the public sector incentives are rare, no wonder innovations are rare.

Another big threat to jobs is empire building based on ethnic loyalties. This kills innovation further, because new ideas are frowned upon. Yet, great economies value diversity and new thinking. Seen how China is attracting other nationalities as her economy grows?

We are resistant to new ideas, we aspire to go and study abroad or visit other countries, but rarely transfer the ideas we get there. It took 50 years to get cameras on our roads, but it takes less time to assimilate new hair styles or dancing styles. Japanese and Koreans progressed by absorbing Western ideas whole heartedly, using culture as an anchor.

We cannot reduce population overnight, but we can make our education system more focused on practical ideas, like in our high school. That will take time, but it’s possible.

We also must make Kenyans more responsible; jobs are not created by government but by private individuals like you and me. Indians and other Asians are in demand all over the world as scientists. What skills are Kenyans in demand for? We must create services and goods with demand beyond our borders. The Japanese did that with cars, electronics and more lately sushi. The Chinese have done that with products that suit our pockets. Americans did that with movies.

—The writer is a lecturer and MBA programme coordinator, University of Nairobi.  xniraki@gmail.com