Employment and Productivity in Kenyan Manufacturing

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Periodical article

Title:	Employment and Productivity in Kenyan Manufacturing
Author:	Pack, Howard
Year:	1972
Periodical:	Eastern Africa Economic Review
Volume:	4
Issue:	2
Period:	December
Pages:	29-52
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Kenya
Subjects:	industry employment productivity Labor and Employment Economics and Trade
Abstract:	A common phenomenon in developing countries is the failure of manufacturing employment to grow rapidly enough to help in any substantial way in the absorption of members of the growing urban labour force. The failure of employment to grow faster is usually attributed to growing capital intensity, assumed to be induced by a growing ratio of wage to capital costs. Interviews undertaken by the A., however, suggested that, at least in the Kenyan economy, many widely accepted views of the output-employment relation miss the mark in a number of important dimensions. Section 1 of this article (Current production methods: processing by stage) describes some salient aspects of the observed production processes; 2 (The employment-output relation) suggests some generalizations on the evolution of labour productivity; 3 considers the implications of the existence of widespread excess capacity; 4 discusses a number of other issues related to factor substitution. Notes.