The relation between employment and entrepreneurship can be
termed as an occurrence in ambiguity. There are cases where employment is the
major cause of lack of entrepreneurship and other cases where the latter is
responsible for reduction in unemployment.
Over 70% of the youth in Kenya are employed in informal
private sectors or have started their own businesses, the reason as to why they
wouldn’t want to be employed is because of long working hours, poor conditions,
job security and low wages as opposed to the informal sector, where working
hours can be regulated, there is job security, working conditions are improved
and wages depend on ones productivity.
The overpopulation of educated youth in job market has led
to unemployment and the rise of entrepreneurial activity as a means to
decongest the job market and develop innovativeness that will grow the economy. This is as a result of the challenges the
governments face in creating employment both in the first class and developing
countries.
Most of the governance systems put in place vouch for
education, then employment rather than encouraging the youth to develop
entrepreneurial skills through the establishment of vocational institutions and
technical training schools.
The least percentage of the youth who prefer employment cite
reasons like entrepreneurship is not certain and it involves a number of risks;
like reduction in innovativeness,
competition from other entrepreneurs and lack of capital outlay and this can
lead to a decline in the business before it reaches maturity thus rendering
them jobless again.
Entrepreneurship has enabled migrants who return to their
host countries to set shop and be self –employed due to the low wage rate of
employment in their mother countries as compared to that which they were
earning in the foreign country. As a result they also help to ease the job
market by creating employment for the few people who are going to work in their
firms. Through the business they conduct they can help rural and urban areas
from demographic decline and also improve the countries foreign trade relations
through their transnational links.
All in all both employment and entrepreneurship are vital in
an economy since they help ease the job market and lead to the growth of the
economy. What matters most is where one feels comfortable and uses his
potential and skills to the maximum.