NUR-SULTAN – The Kazakh government will provide jobs for 1.22 million people in total with the help of state programs by the end of the year, said Minister of Labor and Social Protection of the Population Birzhan Nurymbetov in a Aug. 18 government meeting, reported Kazakh Prime Minister’s press service.
Photo credit: inform.kz.
As of today, the Enbek (Labor) state program, the Employment Roadmap and other similar state programs have provided employment to approximately 743,000 people.
Enbek gave its participants 5,800 soft loans for small businesses and 17,200 grants. The state also subsidized wages for 156,000 jobs.
The projects of the Employment Roadmap will create more than 100,000 permanent jobs. The government, for instance, plans to build 13 new infectious outpatient clinics as part of their roadmap to combat COVID-19. These projects should create 5,000 permanent jobs.
The roadmap has 6,400 ongoing projects involving 154,000 people. Of these, 73 percent are in rural areas, 37 percent help unemployed youth, 17 percent are citizens engaged in informal work, and 9 percent are dedicated to low-income families. The government allocated 240 billion tenge (US$573.23 million) to finance the roadmap in August.
To reduce the unemployment among youth, the government has also organized short-term training in the basics of entrepreneurship for 34,500 people. The government will send more than 20,000 school graduates that did not pass the unified national testing (UNT) to a free vocational training in September. 130,000 people have found work through the Employment Centers for open vacancies.
A screenshot from the Aug. 18 government meeting. Photo credit: primeminister.kz.
In addition to these measures, the akims (governors) of the regions in Kazakhstan should create 431,500 jobs by the end of 2020 as part of the memorundums in the beginning of 2020. During the first seven months of 2020, the akims have reported 300,207 new jobs, nearly half of which are permanent and 135,000 in the countryside. The North Kazakhstan, Mangistau, and Kyzylorda regions had a 70 percent increase in the share of permanent jobs.
Kazakh Prime Minister Askar Mamin highlighted the positive dynamics of the implementation of measures to support employment in the Shymkent, Zhambyl, the North Kazakhstan and East Kazakhstan regions.
Mamin instructed the government to ensure that the implementation of the state programs continues, as well as to optimize the business processes of the Electronic Public Employment Service, and to strengthen oversight.
“There are only four months left until the end of the year and the Akimats need to intensify work on the implementation of the programs. In the current conditions, the primary task is to ensure the employment of citizens. The necessary resources have been allocated, all the tools are in place, imbalances in the labor market must not be allowed,” Mamin said.
