Overview of Kazakhstan

Population:  19.83 million in 2024

GDP: US$290.994 billion (2024) 

Economic Overview

‍Kazakhstan's economic growth is mainly dependent on gas and oil revenues (35% of GDP and 75% of exports). Prior to COVID, the GDP grew by 4.5% in 2019, as domestic demand, construction boom, and business spending supported the economic activity. In 2020, as the pandemic affected worldwide export business, Kazakhstan's economy experienced a setback and resulted in a negative growth balance of 2.6%. According to the IMF's economic forecast, in 2021, the growth is expected to resume— estimated at 3.2% of GDP; in 2022, it will stabilize at 4%.

Market Size

‍Kazakhstan’s market size is large enough to accommodate most of the working-age people. The service sector, especially the financial sector, is quite stable and absorbing a good percentage of the population seeking employment. As the nation's economy has started to recover after the initial effects of the pandemic, the unemployment rate in Kazakhstan also decreased to 4.9% in the fourth quarter of 2020 from 5% in the third quarter of 2020.

A brief glimpse of industries

• Even with the government's diversification efforts, Kazakhstan is still largely dependent on oil prices, and the economy relies on hydrocarbon exports.
• Economic diversification policy of the government is facing multiple challenges like the weakening of global demand for fossil fuels, greater regional competition to attract investment, and increased risks of instability in the financial sector. 
• Agriculture in the country is extensive—Kazakhstan is one of the leading wheat producers in the world. Agribusiness is quite developed; dairy industries and livestock account for a significant share of the agricultural sector. 
• The manufacturing sector has developed in the last few years in Kazakhstan. The most prominent industries in the nation are hydrocarbon production, textiles, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals, ferrous and non-ferrous metals, and fertilizers.
• The tertiary sector is the significant one in Kazakhstan and growing steadily even after the pandemic. The main services produced in the country are in the financial sector, transport and technology.
• The tourism, retail, hospitality, wholesale, and transport sectors account for around 30% of employment and are mostly concentrated in cities.
• The average fixed broadband internet speed in Kazakhstan is 49.12 Mbps. The average download speed is 58.35 Mbps per second, and the upload speed is 55.23 Mbps.

Cost of living in Kazakhstan

The cost of living in Kazakhstan varies greatly from city to city. Plus, the ever-fluctuating value of the tenge makes it quite difficult to generalize the standard cost of living in the nation. The living cost also depends on your lifestyle, location where you stay, choice of accommodation, and so on. The following table shows a snapshot of the common average living cost in Kazakhstan.  

A Breakdown of the Average Living Cost in Kazakhstan

Salary structure for various roles in Kazakhstan

The following table represents the average annual salary of different sectors in Kazakhstan.

Cost of renting

When it comes to accommodation cost, it varies with the position of the apartment plus the type of the apartment. Apartments are more expensive in the city center compared to those outside of the city. Modern apartments in complexes are more expensive than Soviet-style apartments. Excessive house rents increase the cost of living in Kazakhstan's cities a lot.   

Your cost of living in Kazakhstan depends on your location

The top sectors that are expected to hire in Kazakhstan in 2024

To address the impact of the pandemic, the government has taken multiple initiatives. The service sector has started to regain its vitality and is hiring people to meet the new requirement of the industry. The manufacturing industry is also being alive and employing skilled people.

Top Skills in Kazakhstan

Though the pandemic has paused the economic growth, Kazakhstan has resumed the businesses and started employing people to catch up the pace. There are several job opportunities for the fresher as well as experienced professionals.  

Significant industries hiring in Kazakhstan are:

• Computer hardware & software
• Oil & gas exploration & production
• Consumer products manufacturing
• IT services
• Banking and credit unions
• Mining
• Airlines
• Telecommunication Services

Top Skills City-wise Occupation-wise

Almaty, the largest city of Kazakhstan, is the major commercial and cultural center of the nation.  Finance is one of the largest industries in Almaty. The city offers job opportunities in industries like:

• Customer services
• Banks
• Metallurgy of non-ferrous metals
• Airlines
• IT services

Country capital Astana or Nur-Sultan offers plenty of job options in conventional electricity, airlines, oil and gas exploration & production, pipelines, IT services, accounting, construction, and telecommunication services.

Shymkent and Taraz are the cities offering employment options in industries like Education, banks and credit unions, and consulting. 

Pavlodar is a city with varieties of job options. Most of the jobs are available in customer product manufacturing, banks and credit unions, and food and beverage manufacturing industries.

Hiring Cost

Cost-per-hire is an essential metric for any organization. When planning to recruit in a foreign country, you need to be thorough about the cost of living, availability of talent and skills, market competition, etc. Hiring cost is a cumulative sum of all the costs associated with filling a position, such as advertising expenses, recruiting events costs, recruitment software fees, onboarding cost, training cost, travel costs, administrative costs, and benefits.

Employment Laws in Kazakhstan

The Constitution of Kazakhstan declares a number of people’s rights in the field of labor and industrial relations, such as 

• Right to freedom of forming associations 
• Freedom of labor & the free choice of occupation and profession
• Right to safe and hygienic working conditions
• Remuneration without discrimination
• Social protection against unemployment
• Right to individual and collective labor disputes (Article 24 of the Constitution).

There are several other legal acts also in Kazakhstan that regulate labor and industrial relations, but not covered by the Labor Law, such as:

• The Law on Collective Agreements
• The Law on the Occupation of the Population

The Law on Collective Labor Disputes and Strikes

• The Edict on Approving a Position on Qualification Classes of State Employees
• The Law on Employment of Population
• The Law on State Service

How Can Skuad Help You In Hiring in Kazakhstan?

Hiring in a foreign country needs a talent hunt plus in-depth knowledge of the country's employment laws, city-wise living cost, hiring costs, etc. To make the hiring smooth, easy, and cost-effective for your organization, you can consider Skuad as your Employer of Record partner. Skuad acts as your legal employer to help you hire employees and also takes responsibility for all formal employment tasks. Contact Skuad to know more.