Unemployment slightly falls in Kazakhstan

The Statistics Committee’s second quarter 2019 date shows that a population of Kazakhstan is 18 million 478 thousand people, up by 0.3% over the first and by 1.3% over the same period of last year.

Kazakhstan is experiencing a 0.3 per cent quarterly rise in the workforce resulting from population growth and an annual rise of 1.4 per cent, implying 9 million 205 thousand people are employed across the country. Due to the high population density, Almaty region, city of Almaty and Turkestan region represent a significant portion of the workforce – 1 million 043 thousand people, 985 thousand people and 819 thousand people, respectively.

Mega-cities and oil-producing regions are also observing the growth in workers’ number largely driven by their financial attractiveness, with an annual growth rate of 14.1 per cent in Mangystau region and that of 6.2 per cent in Atyrau region, 6.6 per cent in Nur-Sultan, 4.2 per cent in Shymkent and 2.7 per cent in Almaty. Meanwhile, in the country’s some regions workforce increases have come to a halt, with Northern Kazakhstan observing a 1.6 per cent fall in the workforce and Kyzylorda and Pavlodar regions – a 0.9 per cent fall.

Analysis by regions demonstrates that the bulk of employed people are involved in commerce (1 million 409 thousand people), agriculture (1 million 221 thousand people), education (1 million 102 thousand people) and industry (1 million 100 thousand people), corresponding to more than half of working people, with most increases in workers occurring in accommodation and food services – by 11.8 per cent, other individual services – by 10.5 per cent, water supply and waste management – by 9.2%, arts and entertainment – by 7.2% over the 2nd quarter of 2018. Nevertheless, there is the decrease in the number of workers in the following areas: real estate operations – a 4.7 per cent fall, information and communication – a 2.4 per cent fall and agriculture – a 1.2 per cent decrease.

There has been an increase in the number of citizens with secondary vocational education in the wake of the government policy to ensure the country’s economy does not face a shortage of workers with technical and vocational education and to give youth opportunities to get a free professional education.

According to the second quarter of 2019 people with secondary professional education make up 41.1 per cent of the total workforce (3 million 600.2 thousand people), while people with higher education represent 37.6% of the workforce (3 million 294.6 thousand people).

64 per cent or 5 million 608 thousand people work in their field of profession, and over 20.5% (1 million 796 thousand people) work in a different field.

There have been increases in workers hired by small enterprises as well as by enterprises of up to 500 people – by 7.8 per cent and 7.4 per cent, respectively, over the 2nd quarter of last year.

Employed people account for a majority of the working population -76.1%.

There are 442 thousand unemployed persons throughout the country, with high unemployment rates observing in the southern parts of the country: city of Almaty – 50.3 thousand unemployed people, Almaty region and Turkestan region – 48.0 thousand and 42.1 thousand unemployed persons, respectively. The unemployment rates have grown in some regions - Mangystau region – 12.7 per cent, Atyrau region – 6.5 per cent, Nur-Sultan – 5.7 per cent – over the same period of last year.

The statistics data reveals that the highest unemployment rate prevails among persons aged between 25 and 34, corresponding to 38.5 per cent (169.9 thousand people), and the lowest unemployment rate are found among persons at the age of 65 and over – 0.6 per cent (2.5 thousand).

Most of those unemployed persons either completed secondary vocational education (41.4 per cent) or higher education (33 per cent), up by 10.3 per cent and 17.3 per cent, respectively, compared to the 2nd quarter of last year.

Among the common reasons are the lack of employment opportunities - 24.8 per cent (no opportunities to find a job – 93.5 thousand persons, no jobs after training – 14.3 thousand persons), stuff turnover - 35.5 per cent (resignations – 116.8 thousand persons, resignations after the expiration date of the labour agreement (contract) – 37.5 thousand persons).