Kenyans across all sectors worked fewer hours in April, says KNBS

Kenyan companies lost hours in April as employees across all sectors reported working fewer hours in compared with the usual hours worked per week.

The education sector recorded the highest variance of 40 hours between the usual and actual hours worked in a week. This was followed by accommodation and food services, which had a variance of 30 hours.

Construction, real estate activities, and the information and communication sectors had variances of 23, 20, and 13 hours respectively. Financial, transportation, manufacturing sectors tied at 12 hours respectively.

Human health, gas supply public administration, and defence sectors recorded lowest variances at 5,5 and 2 hours respectively.

Almost half of the respondents who were absent from work reported that it was due to lockout or stay away instructions as guided by the Government and/or employers they worked for. Other reasons include temporary slack, and temporary layoff or work reduction.
 
Persons who reported that they were absent from work due to stay away or lockdown were asked when they expected to return to work. Nine out of ten were not sure of when they would be returning to work.
The novel Corona Virus Disease (COVID) which was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) this year has ravaged many countries in the world.
 
A number of measures aimed at curbing the spread of the virus have been introduced across the world. In Kenya, the measures introduced by the Government include banning all passenger flights, temporary closure of restaurants and bars, dusk to dawn curfew, cessation of movement in and out of some high-risk areas among others. Globally, the confirmed cases of coronavirus infections stood at 4,170,424 with 287,399 deaths (WHO) as of May 13.
 
The uncertainty caused by the disease in various sectors of the economy has led to the introduction of measures, by business owners, geared towards ensuring their businesses remain afloat.