Employment and productivity in Kenyan manufacturing

This paper reports the results of an extensive set of interviews \nwith Kenyan manufacturers. The question to which these interviews were \naddressed is the possibility of absorbing larger numbers of workers in the \nmanufacturing sector. A number of rather surprising patterns appeared. \nFirst, existing manufacturing enterprises are relatively labour intensive; \nrarely do they exhibit the mechanization levels of the developed countries. \nSecond, productivity of labour has risen rapidly not as a result of increasing \nlevels of capital per worker but as the outcome of reorganisation, simple \ninnovations and increasing utilization of capacity. These findings suggest \nthat at least in the near future, say five to ten years, though manufacturing \nemployment may grow, it will certainly grow more slowly than output.