NUR-SULTAN – Kazakhstan’s Enbek state programme has added new mechanisms for gaining employment, reported First Vice Minister of Labour and Social Protection of Population Yerzhan Zhilkibayev on July 29. New jobs are available through 14 state programmes addressing the country’s labour market.
Photo credit: bnews.kz.
“Today, about 8.7 million people participate in the labour market. In order to maintain the unemployment rate at 4.9 percent, and furthermore every year to reduce it by 0.1 percent, we must create 370,000 new jobs each year. Regarding job creation, 14 state programmes are being implemented here in Kazakhstan. These are Nurly Zhol, Nurly Zher and others,” he said.
In addition to the contributions of other programmes, the Enbek programme most directly targets the unemployment problem by offering training, retraining, grants and loans. The Job Creation Map database is expected to help track its progress.
“The Enbek programme is mainly aimed at active measures to promote employment: training, retraining, grants and loans. For the first half of this year, 12,000 jobs were created precisely thanks to the Enbek programme. Now we have created the Job Creation Map database, where we will clearly keep track of what jobs are created in the regions, and we will adjust our plans accordingly,” said Zhilkibayev. Enbek means labour in Kazakh.
Additional Enbek programme priorities are creating proactive employment centres, rather than the need for individuals to physically come to the centres, and promoting their services. The latter is necessary, as many citizens are unaware of the benefits available through the programme, he noted. A series of “The portrait of a grant holder” promo videos will be posted on social media to address the issue.
The programme particularly targets socially vulnerable groups such as parents of multiple children and youth.
Through the Enbek state programme, Kazakh unemployment could drop to 4.5 percent, noted Minister of Labour and Social Protection Berdibek Saparbayev earlier this year.
“In order to correct the balance, we developed this programme that covers the period up to 2025, particularly how many workers will leave and how many will enter the job market. We need to open approximately 350,000 jobs. As a result, we will reduce unemployment from 4.8 to 4.5 percent by the end of this programme,” he said.
