Nairobi, Feb. 10 -- More Kenyan youth have over the last two years been forced to take up informal jobs despite being well educated as formal employment opportunities diminish, a new study has shown.

Some 754,185 Kenyan youth, aged 15 to 35, have taken up informal openings from 2024 to date, raising the rate of informal employment among them to 91.5 percent currently from 90.2 percent two years ago.

According to the Africa Youth Employment Outlook, a report done by World Data Lab, the MasterCard Foundation, and the University of Cape Town's Development Policy Research Unit (DPRU), only 955,023 Kenyan youth, or 8.5 percent, are formally employed.

This is a drop from 1,044,893 in 2023, when formality rate was at 9.8 percent, reflecting a...