During the Government session under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov the issue of measures to ensure sustainable employment in the Republic of Kazakhstan was considered. The Minister of Labour and Social Protection of Population of the Republic of Kazakhstan Svetlana Zhakupova made a report on the main directions of work in this direction.

As noted by the Minister, in order to effectively implement employment measures in January this year in all regions Akims approved regional employment maps, within which it is planned to provide employment for more than 948 thousand citizens.

"To date, more than 352 thousand people have been employed, which is 37 per cent of the total indicator. It should be noted that 148 thousand of them are young people," Zhakupova said.

In general, according to her, since the beginning of the year, 137 thousand citizens have been employed in state-subsidised jobs, more than 97 thousand citizens - within the framework of the initiative of the Head of State "100 new jobs for every 10 thousand population", more than 103 thousand - on vacancies provided by employers, as well as about 16 thousand people - within the framework of national projects and sectoral concepts implemented in the country.

At the same time, the Minister noted the achievement of planned indicators of regional employment maps. Thus, the highest indicators are noted in Abay region (53%), North Kazakhstan region (47%), Kyzylorda region (45%) and Zhambyl region (45%), and the lowest indicators of fulfilment of planned indicators are observed in Aktobe region (30%) and in Almaty city (30%).

According to the head of the ministry, most jobs were created under the concepts of "State Youth Policy" (2,915), "Development of agro-industrial complex" (1999), "Green Economy" (1,739). The lowest indicators are "Information and Communication Technologies" (38), "Development of Gas Industry" (66), "Development of Physical Culture and Sports" (68).

Separately, the Minister dwelt on measures to ensure continuous work by increasing quality jobs. Last year, as part of the execution of the order of the Head of State, the Concept of "Development of the labour market of the Republic of Kazakhstan for 2024-2029 years" was approved. Within the framework of the Concept, it was planned to create a competitive, predictable and easily adaptable labour market to provide quality jobs. The implementation of the task provides for three main mechanisms:

• stimulating demand for quality jobs;
• development of human capital; 
• development of labour market infrastructure.

"The Ministry has already developed and applied a system of monitoring of quality jobs in regions and industries. According to our data, in 2023 the indicator of quality jobs in Kazakhstan reached 2.27 million, including the number of new jobs amounted to 198 thousand," Zhakupova reported.

According to her, the increase in quality jobs falls on the cities of Astana, Almaty (11.9 per cent) and the southern macro-region (10.3 per cent). In this case, the indicators are formed taking into account the specifics of macro-regions, industrialisation of the main sectors of the economy, strengthening of infrastructure, development of small and medium-sized businesses and offteik-contracts.

The share of the industrialisation map and investment projects in increasing the number of quality jobs, broken down by each macro-region, has also been studied. Increasing the capacity of allocated budgetary resources will also create new quality jobs.

"To ensure the effectiveness of public investment, it is proposed to transform the state planning system, which will allow monitoring the implementation of projects and the creation of quality jobs. This measure will make it possible, on the one hand, to exclude from the project suppliers who practically do not have the necessary labour resources to implement the project. On the other hand, the state will have the opportunity to control the fulfilment of obligations by other employers," Zhakupova said. 

According to her, the Ministry has developed a prototype of such a system, but for its further implementation it will be necessary to make changes in the legal acts related to public procurement, budget planning and project implementation.

Separately, the head of the ministry dwelled on measures taken in the direction of youth employment. According to her, an appropriate market-place has been developed for students' practical training at the electronic labour exchange and work is being done for its effective implementation. A Mansap compasy system has been developed for each citizen to manage his/her career trajectory.

The Minister also drew attention to the fact that for young people wishing to work abroad, in accordance with international contracts it is envisaged to open centres for the organisation of preparatory courses in East Kazakhstan, Turkestan and Almaty regions.

In turn, taking into account the current deficit of specialists in technical specialities, it was proposed to consider the issue of exemption from military debt repayment for persons of technical specialities who graduated from educational institutions in these specialities, as well as to open military departments in colleges aimed at training sergeants for military training.

"One of the important areas is the declaration of labour relations, in particular, the problem of accounting for informal workers, actual staffing levels in companies, social guarantees and benefits provided to the collective. The emergence of this problem complicates the implementation of state programmes to support employment of business and population, work on monitoring of safety and labour protection at enterprises," Zhakupova said.

According to her, to solve these problems: 

Firstly, it is planned to switch to a digital format of labour contracts. It should be noted that more than three thousand labour contracts have already been concluded in the pilot mode in the electronic format. 

Secondly, the ministry is implementing a project of electronic staffing table. This is a functional declaration of labour relations, which encodes all jobs in information systems.

This tool makes it possible to properly account for labour resources, job creation, formation of working conditions, provision of personal protective equipment and social guarantees.

The Minister further touched upon the issue of evaluating the effectiveness of state subsidised jobs. The results of analysing the indicators of this instrument for previous years show that these measures have increased the number of recipients in such categories as women, youth, rural residents and people with disabilities.

Zhakupova also spoke about the work carried out to improve the effectiveness of measures to create permanent jobs. 

Firstly, it is harmonisation of employment promotion measures with priority development projects in sectors and regions.

Secondly, optimisation of ineffective employment promotion measures; 

Thirdly, promoting long-term employment without subsidising jobs through skills development and improving education programmes.

In addition, it is planned to introduce tools based on geolocation and biometrics technologies to monitor the effectiveness of employment promotion measures.

In order to implement the Head of State's instruction, the Ministry has developed conceptual approaches to introduce a new system of remuneration for specialists of Career Centres in the country - the principle of remuneration based on employment results.

The proposed method of salary calculation is developed in accordance with the results of work, i.e. with the introduction of the principle of "Case Management" depending on the knowledge, skills and abilities of employees of career centres aimed at the employment of citizens. 

In order to conduct the pilot project productively, in accordance with the Prime Minister's instruction, the calculation of salaries of specialists of career centres will be ensured from 1 July. Three contrasting regions Turkestan, West Kazakhstan and Kostanay regions have been selected for the pilot project. The implementation of these works, according to the minister, will increase the number of quality jobs in the country and improve the employment structure. 

"According to the results of the measures taken, by 2029 it is predicted that the country's economy will be provided with 3.8 million quality jobs (45 per cent of the total employment structure). The incomes of 1.7 million citizens of the country will rise to a level above the average wage," the Minister of Labour and Social Protection concluded.

#Employment #Government session